Resurgo
by Nisaba and Seshat
Summary: Hogwarts is crumbling and there is an ancient spell getting stirred up on the grounds of Hogwarts. There are two children that a part of a major prophecy that involves them both, and their parents. Summary under construction
1. Prolouge

**A/N: We sadly and very tearily don't own anything JK Rowling created, or anything else you might recognize. The things you see and may say, "Hmm, well that's new!" probably and most definitely belong to us.**

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><p><span>Prologue<span>

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><p><strong>F<strong>awkes intertwined her slender pale fingers as she watched Lilith McGonagall set the beaten brown Sorting Hat on an equally ancient stool. She carefully and quietly listened as the crackly deep voice of the hat resounded across the room.

_For the time has come for once again,_

_the Houses to accept more kin._

_But I fear that now the time has come,_

_for Hogwarts to become undone._

Fawkes froze; that was the shortest and eldest song that the hat had ever sung. Fawkes's fiery red eyes widened and her skin paled even more, if that was possible, as she stiffened with the realization. But slowly Fawkes relaxed and put her elbows on the table and stared at the first years with a clear expression. If anything, over the years the children had become even smaller.

"Aburn, Lane," Professor McGonagall called and a short fat boy stumbled up to the chair and pulled the hat over his rather large head. After a moment of consideration the hat yelled,

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Avery, Piper," Professor McGonagall called and a pretty, brunette girl sat on the stool and carefully put the hat on, who instantly shouted,

"SLYTHERIN!"

The girl took off the hat and handed it back to Professor McGonagall before walking over to the furthest table on the right where the other Slytherins were clapping. Fawkes leaned back in her chair and watched as the list went on.

"Black, Regulus."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Sirius."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And so the slow torture went on. Fawkes just couldn't understand the use of Sorting houses, but it was a tradition, and who was she to deny tradition? Fawkes was practically almost asleep when a name caught her attention.

"Riddle, Helios," Professor McGonagall called. Fawkes's eyes focused on a boy walking up to the chair, his dark red hair was covered, along with his whole head, by the Sorting hat. After a minute's hesitation the hat yelled,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Riddle, Nyx." A girl walked up to the stool and, like the boy before her, her red-ish/black-ish hair was covered with the hat. It took almost as long for the hat to choose for the boy, if not longer. When it finally did decide, the hat cackled,

"SLYTHERIN!"

Fawkes clapped slowly, her brows furrowed. _These must be the two Albus mentioned, _she thought as the Sorting went on. _So then why, in the sacred name of Merlin, are they in two different houses? _Completely_ different houses?_

Finally the Sorting ended when "Zabini, Marie" was sorted into Slytherin. Fawkes stood up, her fiery red hair cascading down her back and her pale skin luminous against the snow-white cloak she wore.

"Hullo students of Hogwarts, new and old. I am Fawkes Ivory, the Headmistress, and Professor Ivory to my students." Fawkes smiled good naturedly at all the students, a twinkle in her fiery eyes. "Now among you there are brave, smart, loyal, and cunning. But to me you are all the same, so do not disappoint me. With that let us begin the feast." Fawkes sat down and the platters that were empty seconds ago were suddenly full of food.

Halfway through the feast a loud, crashing echoed through the castle; it caused the ground to shake and the candlelights to flicker. As suddenly as it started, the shaking stopped. That's when the confusion and shouting started. Fawkes stood up and pointed her want at her throat.

"Sonorus." Fawkes' voice was suddenly booming around the room. "Be quiet and be still!" she shouted, and as a response, everyone sat and closed their mouths. Fawkes whispered, "Quietus." and her voice stopped echoing.

"Rosa," Fawkes whispered to the redhead next to her. "Please go find out what happened." The redhead nodded and walked quickly and quietly out of the room. Fawkes sat through the rest of the feast with an aching suspicion of the crashing noise.

"Okay students," Fawkes said as the feast ended. "Hogwarts wishes to—" But she was cut off by another crash, shake, and flickering of the lights. Suddenly Rosa reappeared and motioned Fawkes over, which she immediately complied to.

"All the common rooms' entry ways are all closed off from collapsed rocks," Rosa whispered hurriedly. "I don't know where the last crash is coming from but—" Rosa was cut off as another woman walked up.

"It's coming from the Astronomy tower," she said. The woman had weathered tan skin, electric blue eyes, and a wooden leg.

"Annabeth Moody." Fawkes smiled. "You sure do look like Alastor."

"The castle is crumbling, Fawkes; we need to evacuate the students," Rosa said urgently. Fawkes nodded and clapped her hands loudly. The hall quieted as she walked back up to the front of the room.

"Students and Staff of Hogwarts, I fear that the castle is crumbling. I need you all to calmly exit the castle and enter the grounds." She did some quick guesswork as to how long it would take to repair the castle back to normal-standards.

"For the next two years Hogwarts will be shut down due to repairs. I'm sorry, but you all will have to go abroad for the two years while Hogwarts is under construction," Fawkes told them. She then faced the staff while the students whispered. "I am sorry, but if you decide to help rebuild Hogwarts, you'll be paid for your troubles and expenses. But only _if_ you help with the construction."

"Jeffery, Lani, Willamina, and Star, I need you to go and lead your students out to the grounds. Rosa, go call the Hogwarts Express back; the students need to return home." Fawkes sighed. "They won't be back for two years."

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><p><strong>AN: Hey you guys! Jeez, yeah we know, that was rather boring, but necessary. Now we (Nisaba and Seshat) realize that there OF COURSE will be typos, grammatical errors, and punctuation errors. No one is perfect, so don't expect us to be. Especially not us. =) **

**So Fawkes is Dumbledore's Fawkes the Phoenix, and yes we do realize that Fawkes is a boy, but we decided to make him a her and an animagus. **

**Now, here's how the chapters are gonna work; there will be two main characters, and each chapter will switch the POV. **

Nisaba**, also known as **Eclipse**, is the writer of Nyx (or just think of her as Nyx.) This is also Nisaba's (and **Eclipse's**, actually, seeing as they're the same person... unless she is schizophrenic {which she probably is}) first fanfiction, so she'd REALLY love to have some feedback! So all of you first-time authors out there who know the feeling of putting yourself and your creation out there, you know how she feels, so get yer fingers typing a review for her! :P**

Seshat**, also known as **Witchy Nike**, is the writer of Helios (We would say think of her as Helios, but, you know, **Witchy Nike **isn't a dude, therefore **Seshat **isn't either. Sorry folks! That's how life is.) So, if any of you who are reading this just happen to be a guy and realize that what is in Helios' views may not exactly be how a normal thirteen year old guy would put it, we're sorry. Seshat is trying her best to think like a guy, and trust us, it's scaring her to death having to put herself through that! ;) **

**But anyways, the splitting of the chapters and characters doesn't mean that one of us is in charge of that chapter entirely; we are both in charge of everything. So all of this little creation is our ideas. The A/N will either be signed Nisaba, Seshat, or Nisaba and Seshat, depending on who did most of the work.**

**Anyways, hope you liked it and come back for more! You know what? Even if you didn't like it, tune in for next time. You might find it gets better than you may think.**

**If you read, then you review, please!**

**Nisaba and Seshat**


	2. Chapter 1: Nyx

**Chapter One**

**_Nyx_**

**Returning to Hell**

"It's been two years," I said as I scrutinized my reflection in the glass. My hair was its crazy colours of red and black and it would not lay down nicely. I pursed my lips and studied my face. My face was heart-shaped, adorable really, however it was blemished with scars from days I wished not to remember. My skin was frightfully pale and I ran a slender finger down my cheek, perhaps some time in the sun would help my skin return to a more normal shade of white. Scars weren't the only things that messed with my appearance, my eyes were what really set me apart. One eye was a deep, crimson red while the other eye was an acid green.

I glared once more at my reflection before yanking the curtains shut and turning back to the compartment. There were four others in the compartment. A boy with white-blond hair, icy eyes, and an ego that no one could match sat across from me, his mouth was moving in what I assumed to be whiny complaints, he was Ryan Malfoy. Next to him sat a girl, her black hair a mess of frizz and tangles, she was considerable pale as well, her black eyes crinkled in disgust at Ryan, she was his cousin and my second best friend Trix Lestrange.

"They should have had the castle fixed sooner than this, it's practically October," said a voice to my right. I turned to look into the stormy grey eyes of Regulus Black, my long-time best friend and short-time boyfriend. She had sharp features, soft black curls that had grown out since our two years away from Hogwarts, and to top it all off, his pure-blood status when back centuries.

"I wish father had let me stay at Durmstrang," Ryan said in a whiny voice.

"I wish so too," snapped Trix. I smiled, remembering the times when the two were hopeless lovebirds.

"Lovebirds," said the girl that sat beside Trix and Malfoy, her chin resting on her hand. Compared to her I was a bell blossom whilst she was a rose. Her long hair was black on top and blond of the bottom and her blue eyes were half closed in boredom. "Quite fighting or get a room."

"We are not in love, Marie," Trix snapped, her black eyes glaring into Marie's blue ones.

"Methinks someone's in denial," I said in a slightly sing-song voice.

"Oh don't taunt them, Nyx," said a thick Spanish accented voice from around Regulus. I smiled as I looked at Piper Avery. Marie might have been my best friend but Piper was practically my sister. Her Brazilian features made her beautiful, glossy brown hair, chestnut skin, and chocolate brown eyes.

"Fine, but what else am I supposed to do to amuse myself?" I asked her, a glint in my eye. Piper seemed to understand as she stood up and held out her hand.

"Why, Miss Riddle, will you accompany me to speak with the Gryffindor Royalty?" I lightly grabbed her offered hand and she looped her arm into mine.

"Shall we go?" I asked.

"We shall," she replied and we left the others in the compartment.

The Gryffindor Royalty was the name that our group of Slytherins named the opposing group of Gryffindors that all seemed to hold a grudge against our group. It consisted of James Potter, Lily Evans, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and, the most annoying of them all, Helios Riddle. Since the six were treated like royalty over in Gryffindor, and by most of the staff and other students, our group had taken to referring them by titles such as King and Queen.

Piper pulled us to a stop in front of a compartment and opened the door. "Surprise," she said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. Six pairs of eyes focused on us and Piper frowned, putting her hand on her hip.

"What?" She asked, pretending to be hurt. "No hello?"

"We missed you so much," I said. "Durmstrang was such a drag without our favourite Gryffindor's."

"Really?" Potter asked. "I thought Beaubaton was so much better without you,"

"Really, Potter?" I asked and put a hand over my heart, pouting my lips. "That hurts you know, hurts right here." I patted my chest.

"Almost as much as your ankle," Black smirked. He was pointing at my right ankle where, if it wasn't covered by a boot, would show a rather nasty dog bite.

"You and I both know in a fair fight you wouldn't have a chance against me," I snarled. I pity Regulus, having Sirius as his brother.

"But I still did and you didn't even hurt me," he retorted.

I moved quickly, pulling a knife from my boot and knocking Sirius onto the floor. Before anyone could stop me I had my knife to his throat and our noses almost touching. I was glaring furiously at him as I spoke.

"Anytime, Black, anyplace," I said. Black opened his mouth to say something but I stood up slightly, my knife cutting through his shirt and down his chest as I did. Thin drops of blood came from the small incision. "You should probably clean up your blood, Black." I said as I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket, whipping the blood off of my knife I dropped it on his chest.

"You _bitch_!" Tonks yelled and pounced at me. I was suddenly pulled into the halls and the door closed. Tonks slammed into it and I barely got to see her snarling face before Piper was dragging me down the halls.

"What were you _thinking_?" Piper snarled. "Cutting his chest like that," she was mad but I ignored it.

"What did you do?" Regulus asked as Piper stormed into our compartment and dropped me off next to him.

"She _cut _him," Piper hissed. "With _Argetum Detraheret_."

_Argetum Detraheret_ is the name of my knife, the words in Latin translate to _Silver Stain_, a name appropriate for the splotchy silver knife. It also has many magical properties, yet I can only use them when I feed him blood.

"Oh, Nyx," Regulus gave me a look.

"Don't 'Oh, Nyx" me. You would have done the same, he was asking for it so I provided," I snapped.

"Any cut made by _Argetum_ will scar, you know that. Now the school will know _you_ cut up their precious _Sirius Black._" Piper said and jabbed her finger into my chest.

"You cut Sirius?" Regulus asked.

"He won't tell on me," I said and dismissed Regulus' words. "I can prove it was him who bit my leg, being an illegal animagus is so much dirtier than cutting someone up." I said.

"Nyx," Piper started. Suddenly she fell backwards and as the train slammed to a stop.

"Forget it," I said and stood up to grab my trunk.

"We'll talk about this later," She said and grabbed her own.

The group split up, Regulus and Malfoy taking their own carriage while Piper, Trix, Marie and I took our own. I changed in the carriage along with the other girls but as we passed through the gates towards Hogwarts I froze.

"Nyx?" Marie asked.

"Hogwarts feels," I paused looking for the right word. "Different," I finally said. "Like it's trying to keep me out."

"You're making stuff up," Trix said and pulled on my sleeve so I would step off of her robes.

"Probably just imagining then," I said and turned back to pull on my black robes. But I knew I wasn't, as soon as we had passed through the gates I felt a sinister cold wind sweep along my body.

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><p><strong>Well was that a tale to tell you all. So I rewrote the first chapter (Yayyyy!) and let me tell you, it's just as horrible as it originally was. Except, since it's been a year since I last wrote for Resurgo, it has better grammar . . .I hope. So if youre reading this now that means that you've gotten past the horrible prologue and into the wonderful Chapter One. So stick with us and read the Helios Chapter (Seshat's chapter) and get started. Whoop.<strong>

** P.S. Hopefully when I rewrite my other chapters they'll be longer than this one.**

**R&R,**

**Nisaba**


	3. Chapter 2: Helios

Chapter 2

**Helios**

_**Prankster Gone Slytherin**_

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><p>"<strong>W<strong>e've gotta get revenge."

Moony sighed, exasperated. "Mate, I think that was _her _revenge on _you_."

Padfoot had been fuming ever since the Slytherin bitches had left our compartment.

"I can't _believe _you, Moony!" Prongs yelled. "You're taking _their _side!"

"No, I'm not. I'm just saying that—"

"Foxy—"

"Did you just call Helios 'foxy', Black?" Lily said with a grin tugging at her lips. "I didn't know you swung that way. Go figure. Pretty boy likes boys."

Padfoot glared at her. "No, Evans, I do _not _like men. Nor boys, for that matter. I am perfectly straight, I assure you all." He rolled his eyes. "And as you all should well know, Foxy is Helios' Marauder nickname since first year, for reasons known only by, you guessed it, the Marauders."

"Whatever, Black," Lily said, rolling her eyes at him. "Get on with it."

"Anyways… Foxy, tell Moony that his words sound like treachery in our ears," Padfoot said in a superior tone.

I smirked. "Moony, your words sound like treachery in our ears," I said in a mock-tone of Padfoot's.

"Smart-ass," Padfoot grumbled.

"Hardly," I scoffed.

Sirius Black, aka Padfoot, was a tall boy of thirteen with stormy grey eyes and curly black hair. He had tan skin and was very muscled, thanks to Quidditch and all of the running around and such we did as Marauders. He loved to cause trouble and start fights, and, of course, be the one to finish a fight. He'd never back down. He was also player of Hogwarts, and of the French school we were at. I do have to admit, he had a way with the ladies, let's face it, all guys at the school were jealous of he could snag any girl so easily. He had the worst family imaginable, and let's just say we're lucky that he didn't turn out like them.

James Potter, aka Prongs, was much of the same story. Tall and thirteen, he loved to cause trouble too. Prongs was lanky and had fair skin that was colored a little bit from the sun, and wore round black glasses that covered laughing hazel eyes. He was also on the Quidditch team and he, too, had many girls falling for him, not as much as Sirius, but a satisfying amount. But all of them are rejected because of a girl he's hopelessly in love with by the name of "Lily-flower".

Lily Evans is a pretty damn hot girl. She's thirteen and average height. But there's two things you'll notice about her before anything else. One, she's got long _bright_ red hair. Two, she's got the most _greenest_, expressive eyes you'll ever see. She's extremely smart, probably one of the best in our year, but she's got a great sense of humor. I know she likes James, although she'll never admit it to anyone, not even her best friend, Tonks. She was also extremely protective of me for some odd reason, although I stood a good foot and a half taller than her and was built just as much as Sirius. She always corrected me and was very patient; the only way to describe her actions towards me was that she mothered me. Why, I had no idea. But it sure made James jealous as hell.

Nymphadora Tonks is a really gorgeous thirteen year old girl too. She's tall, athletic, but extremely clumsy, so she doesn't do any sports. She's a metamorphous, so her hair color changes on a daily basis. Her favorite color, however, is a hot pink, cut short. She's smart but tends to forget things easily. She also has a great sense of humor, but I'm sure she's bipolar. If you _ever _call her Nymphadora, you'd better run for your life because you're dead meat. Then there's the guy she's head over heels for, even though she won't admit it; Remus.

Remus Lupin, aka Moony, is an extremely tall, gangly thirteen year old. He's got pale blue eyes, sandy brown hair, and a long, jagged scar that runs diagonally across his face. He's really smart and knows probably every spell there is to know. There's actually more girls than you would think that secretly have fallen for the mysterious boy, but he's not interested. He's in love with Tonks, even though he thinks/knows that he'll never be good enough for her, which we all know is complete bullshit. He's quite shy and doesn't really talk to anyone, but that's because he's afraid people will find out about his furry little problem. You see, Remus is a werewolf, and he has been since he was six years old. He's afraid everyone will reject him and shun him, casting him away to be eternally alone. That's why Sirius, James, and I (who, along with Remus make up the Marauders) became Animagi, illegally of course. Sirius became a huge black dog, James a stag, and I a maned-wolf, hence our nicknames (yes, mine is probably the worse, seeing as it's Foxy, but that's a whole different story as of how _that _came about). So we help him with his transformations every full moon to keep him sane and not feeling like a monster.

"Oh," Lily breathed, breaking up my thought process and the others' argument. "Look!"

We all looked up and took in the sight of Hogwarts. It had been two years since we'd last set foot on it's grounds, and I don't know how the others expected it to look, but I was disappointed.

The castle looked nothing like it used to; sure, it still had the old stones and had the same layout, but it just didn't…feel right. The old mystery and magic that used to engulf the place was gone…it was like the school was dead, leaving it's shell behind.

"That…_thing_…is Hogwarts?" Tonks asked bluntly.

"Does it seem off to anybody else?" I asked. There were muttered agreements with matching puzzled looks.

"Damn. If this is the start of the year…I have a feeling this year is going to be our worst," Moony said sadly, gazing at the castle in remorse as our carriage pulled to a stop.

"Then we're just gonna have to make the best of it," Prongs said simply, trying to hide the worry we so easily saw in his eyes.

"Students, please report to the courtyard," Professor McGonagall was saying in a loud voice. "The Sorting will take place there this year."

"We missed you terribly these past two years, Lil," Padfoot said in a sickly sweet voice. All of us groaned and gave him disbelieving looks. Lily grabbed Tonks by her arm and led her away, muttering under her breath as she went.

McGonagall rolled her eyes and said, "Don't start already this year, Mr. Black. Flattery will get you nowhere." She looked over at me, Moony, and Prongs.

"I heard about Beauxbatons, boys," she said in a calm, disinterested voice. That's how I knew we were in trouble.

"Erm…I have no idea what you're talking about," I said, exchanging glances with my friends.

"Really? So you didn't see any toilets flying around, dumping toilet-water on other students?"

"Nope. Can't say we did," Prongs said, shaking his head slowly.

"Mhmm…really? Weird, because the Headmistress owled me and—"

"It was all Helios' idea!" Padfoot yelled, pointing a finger at me then running swiftly after Lily and Tonks to escape the trouble we were going to be in.

"I, uh, better go make sure he doesn't get lost or run into any walls," Prongs muttered, and ran just as quickly after Padfoot.

"Oh come on!" I yelled at their retreating backs. "Man up a little, guys!" I glared at Moony. "Let me guess…you've got some homework that is suddenly so important that needs tended to?"

Moony gave me a sly look. "Nope. Better. I've got two friends I have to hide since a psychotic madman will be after them in about 3.521 seconds." Lowering his voice as he walked past me, "I _told _you it was a bad idea." So the moron left me and I had to face McGonagall alone.

I smiled at her cheerily. "Ha! Can you believe those pansies? They've got to learn to stick up for what they believe in—"

"Mr. Riddle," McGonagall cut me off in a sharp voice. "Are you telling me you believe in toilets coming to life to drench your fellow classmates with it's disgusting filth?"

"No ma'am," I said solemnly, bowing my head. I peeked up at her and grinned widely. "But you should have _seen _the reaction it got! Oh Merlin it was _priceless! _Except when it dumped on Tonks. We're lucky I'm still here today."

"Right, lucky we are," McGonagall scoffed. "That sounds like a confession if I've ever heard one."

"Actually, professor, no. See, I'm not denying that I did it, but I'm not saying I did do it. It _was, _however, one of the best pranks I've ever seen in my life, so even if I didn't come up with it and commit to it with my fellow flower-friends, I would still claim it so it wouldn't look like someone bested us."

McGonagall raised her eyes to the sky, as if pleading for help. "Go join your friends, Mr. Riddle. And please try to keep your _brilliant _ideas to yourself for at least a week." I gave her an award-winning smile and started to walk away when she said,

"But if toilets start acting up here at Hogwarts, I'm coming after you."

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><p>"'Ey mates! It's the ghost of Foxy!" Padfoot yelled, running to hide behind Tonks, who punched him in the gut.<p>

"Please don't haunt me," Prongs said, getting down on his knees in front of me, giving me a pleading look.

"Oh go shove off, you insufferable toerag," I said, shoving him over.

"Nope, he's alive. And solid," Prongs said, getting up and rubbing his arm. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Where d'you suppose the Gryffindors are supposed to be?" Lily asked, changing the subject. We all looked around.

"I'm not sure," Tonks said. "We could go ask somebody…"

"Pssh. _Ask _somebody," Padfoot said in an insulted tone, eyebrow raised.

"No way," Prongs agreed. "The rest of Gryffindor will come to _us. _We _are _the Marauders, after all." Lily's eyes narrowed, her mouth turning into an angry line.

"Well, sure, us four are the Marauders," I said quickly, "but that's not anything. Not when the two hottest girls in Gryffindor are around us. _That's _what will draw everyone in."

"Aww, you're so sweet," Lily said, winking at me. "No wonder I love you so much." Prongs' glared at me, face turning slightly red.

"Nice save, punk," Tonks said, laughing. And, whether it was because of us Marauders or the sight of Lily and Tonks, all of our fellow Gryffindors were gathered around us in a huge gaggle in about ten minutes. Some of our fellow housemates were sitting and some were standing while some were making out or two others were fist fighting.

"Amateurs!" I yelled at them, breaking their "concentration", allowing one to get a punch on the other.

"Now, now Foxy," Moony tsked. "Not everyone's a natural-born fighter."

"I can't see why not," I grumbled, watching the two boys in disgust. "There's some point in every person's life when they'll have to either start or finish a fight."

"Only you," Tonks said, but I knew she agreed with me wholeheartedly. While Tonks may not have been the best fighter due to her clumsiness, she still enjoyed a good fight every now and then.

Just then I noticed a tall, graceful woman had appeared in the center of the courtyard. She stood there expectantly, her bright, fiery red eyes taking in everything around her.

"Looks like Fawkes is back," I told the others, nodding my head in her direction.

"Is she waiting on us?" Lily asked. "She must know that no one in this school will shut-up unless she tells us too."

"Dunno," Prongs said, shrugging. "Who knows why Fawkes does half the things she does?"

"Well I don't want the Headmistress pissed off at us already this year," Lily snapped. Raising her voice to a very un-Lily-like level, she shouted,

"FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, EVERYONE SHUT THE HECK UP!" The whole school turned to look our way, stopping their conversations. "That's better," Lily said, lowering her voice slightly. "Now if you'd all kindly direct your attention to the center of the courtyard, Professor Fawkes has something to say."

"Thank you, Miss Evans," Fawkes said in her soft but firm voice. "Now, students, I have some good news and some bad news."

"What d'you reckon could be the bad news?" Padfoot asked us, only to be shushed at by Lily and Moony.

"The good news is the school is as close as it'll get to being normal again, and we had almost all of our fellow students come back, along with a fair-sized amount of new first years. And, you'll all be happy to hear, classes won't start til Monday, since tomorrow is the start of the weekend.

"The bad news, however, is all of you will, including those of you who were here two years ago, have to be re-Sorted." There was an uproar as people started talking to those around them; some of them were angry but most were exasperated. I happened to be feeling both emotions.

"You've _got _to be kidding me!" Tonks exclaimed.

"What's the point of this?" James agreed.

"We're all going to be put in the exact same house we're in now, so why waste time?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. I mean, really, what chance was there of any of us getting put in a different house? Well, I saw a chance of Lily or Moony getting put into Ravenclaw, but that was beside the point. During our Sorting our personalities and values were measured and thoroughly inspected. It's not like our personalities and values would have changed that much in that relatively short time; or at least not enough to make us belong somewhere else.

"Alright! Listen, you good for noth—" came a female's loud, gruff voice.

"Professor Moody!" McGonagall's sharp voice interrupted the other woman. "They are children, not criminals. Please use appropriate language." I stood on my tiptoes, trying to get a glimpse of this Professor Moody, but she was hidden from my sight.

"Since it's tradition," Fawkes began, "we will Sort the first years first. Please give them the warm welcome they deserve, as you would give them at any other Sorting ceremony." She nodded to McGonagall, who stepped forward with a hat and a thick scroll in her hands.

"First off, prefects, and you know who you are, you will be the prefect of whichever house you get put into, whether it was your old house or a new one. So everyone, when you are Sorted, go stand by the banner of your house." I looked behind us and, sure enough, there was Gryffindor's banner, high above our heads, swaying proudly in the cool, fall breeze.

"Now, when I call your name, you will come forward, place the hat on your head, and wait for your house to be called. Once your house is known, go stand by your banner. Any questions?" She waited a moment, but no one said a word. "Good," she said, "then let's begin."

"This is going to be a joke," Padfoot muttered, voicing all of our thoughts.

"Allen, Drake," the professor called, and a tall, lanky boy with dark hair made his way through the crowd and placed the hat on his head. He looked slightly nervous while the hat was silent, thinking. There was a tense, anticipating silence that swept through the watching crowd. Finally, that had yelled,

"RAVENCLAW!" And so the Sorting began.

"Art, Faith," McGonagall read. A pretty girl with dark brown skin and long black hair stepped forward, and the hat was placed on her head, covering her eyes.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat bellowed, and the girl walked over to where we were clapping madly for her.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, sweetie," I told her, and she blushed. Lily shook her head at me while Prongs and Padfoot smirked.

"Barns, Victoria." A small girl with light brown hair skipped forward, and as soon as the hat touched her head it yelled,

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The girl beamed and skipped over to the cheering "Hufflepuffs".

"So far so good," I muttered as the first years continued to be Sorted. "No Slytherins yet."

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat contradicted me. I smiled sheepishly.

"You were saying?" Tonks teased.

"Hey! I never claimed to be able to see the future! I have many talents, but, sadly, seeing the future is not one of them."

Moony snorted. "Right. 'Many talents'. Just what are your 'many talents', Helios? Because I have yet to witness them."

"Let's see… Where do I begin? Last year and most likely this year I was Quidditch team captain—"

"Which was a position that was unrightfully yours," Prongs said, pouting.

"Jealousy doesn't flatter you, Potter," Lily said pointedly.

"I'm sorry my dearest Lily-flower—"

"Do you want to lose an eye?" Lily demanded. James was silent. "I didn't think so," she said smugly. We all clapped as we heard another kid was put in Gryffindor.

"Hey, wait you guys," Tonks said. "Where's Peter or whatever his name was?"

"Oh, his parents wanted him to continue his schooling in Canada," Padfoot said dismissively. No one was saddened by this; Peter had been a creepy, awkward kid. Truth be told, I was glad he was gone. He seemed to have like me and Moony just a little too much, passing the disturbing phase.

"Alright!" McGonagall said. "Time to move on to second years! Pay attention please."

"And here's where the joke begins," Moony muttered darkly. Then that's when I had the most brilliant idea ever.

"Why don't we turn it into a joke?" Five pairs of eyes turned my way.

"Go on," Padfoot said, intrigued.

"Well, erm…" I wracked my brain. I was normally the Marauders' ideas-man; about 99.5% of our pranks came from yours truly. "I've got it! Let's mess with the Sorting hat's voice! You know, make it really high pitched and then really deep. That'll light this bullshit up." Prongs and Padfoot were grinning mile-wide smiles while Lily was shaking her head and Tonks was thinking about it. Moony, however, was glaring at me.

"What?" I demanded.

"No, no, and _no._ there's absolutely _no _way," he growled.

"What d'you mean, Moony?" Prongs asked. "I think it's bloody brilliant!"

"No, not about the idea," he said crossly. "As usual, all of Helios' ideas are great. But I'm referring to the fact about who's truly going to be doing the prank."

"But Moony…" I started to plead while Prongs and Padfoot said in unison,

"Ooohhh…"

"Yeah," Moony snapped. "And I'm _NOT_ doing it."

"But Remus…" I tried again.

"_NO!" _he yelled. Several students looked back at us. Lowering his voice, he said, "I'm not kicking off our third year in detention. Seventh year, maybe, in fact, highly possible. But third year, no chance in hell." I blew air out of my mouth huffily, trying to come up with a way to get Moony to do the spell, seeing as he was the only one who could do a spell like that—

I turned sharply to face Lily, a grin tugging at my lips. But before I could even open my mouth she said simply,

"If you want to make it to the Sorting of your _third _year, you best keep that thought to yourself."

"Yes, Lily, dear," I mumbled.

"Hey, watch it, Foxy," Prongs yelled, glaring. "That's my girl."

"Oh shut-up Prongs. I'm not after your woman—" I turned to Tonks. I grinned and winked at her, knowing she would get the message, then turned back to face forward with an inconspicuous look on my face.

"I'm sorry that this whole ordeal is so boring, you guys. Especially for you, Tonks. We all know how you get when you're bored…not to mention when you get nervous…" I sighed. "I just wish there was something we could do to make the whole thing less intimidating for you."

"Are you calling me clumsy again, boy?" she demanded in mock anger.

"Erm…"

"Well, it's true," she said sheepishly. "Especially with some odd two-thousand and ten people watching ever move I make." She hid her face in her hands. "It's so embarrassing," she muttered gloomily.

Moony looked torn. He wanted to stand by what he said, but he had the _biggest _crush on Tonks, so he didn't want to see her "suffer". Oh, what a predicament he was in. I turned away to hide a smile.

"Fine," he hissed at me. "I'll do it. But if we get in trouble I swear I'll—"

"Yeah, yeah, there's time for threats later. They're almost done with second years, so hurry it up," I said.

Moony rolled his eyes and got out his wand. He pointed his wand at the Sorting hat and muttered something under his breath. That was always one thing that he did; I guess he didn't want us to get a hold of those spells. Well, I guess it was for a good reason…not even I knew what Padfoot, Prongs, and I could do with those spells.

"Vina, Serecy," McGonagall was saying. The test-dummy girl placed the hat on her head, and we all waited. I think our group was in more suspense than everyone else. Then finally…

"RAVENCLAW!" Everyone burst out laughing. The house had been said in two different tones. "Raven" had been said in a really deep version of the hat's voice, and "claw" had been said in a really high, squeaky version. McGonagall and Fawkes looked startled and Serecy Vina looked confused. I started clapping, and soon almost the whole school was following suit.

"You bloody bastard!" Padfoot said, ruffling my hair. "You're a freakin' _genious!_ You too Moony, for doing the spell!"

"Yaja, Shawn," McGonagall called.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat yelled, and everyone erupted into fits of laughter. "Gryffin" had been said really high and squeaky and "dor" had been said really deeply.

McGonagall was very wary when she called, "Yamin Will," and placed the hat on his head.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat yelled in the squeakiest and highest voice yet. The whole school was in an uproar. By the time a girl who's name was Sybil Zabik was called up, no one could hear which house she was Sorted into, due to the laughter.

"SILENCE!" the Slytherin head of house, Professor Nott, bellowed. Everyone somehow managed to bottle up their laughter. Well, I thought my group had until Lily, _Lily,_ started giggling, which set my group off again. Nott stalked over to where we were at and peered down at our figures, either sitting or sprawled out on the ground.

Lily and Tonks managed to go silent at the glare we were getting. Moony and Prongs shut-up from a glare from Lily. Padfoot choked and ended up in a coughing fit. So that left me to face the trouble. As always.

"Mr. Riddle," he snapped. "I assume you think you're quite hilarious, don't you?"

I managed to pull a straight face. "Sir?"

"You think you're some bigshot in this school, being able to do whatever you want."

"I'm sorry," I said crossly. "I didn't realize it was illegal to laugh.

Nott smiled, but to me it looked more like a grimace.

"It's good to have you back, Riddle. You'll be able to get caught up with your old friend, detention."

"Hey!" Prongs yelled. "That's not fair!"

"You're just all sour-faced because you don't have a funny bone in your body!" Padfoot said.

"Two weeks of detention for all four of you," Nott said happily.

"Four?" I asked.

"Yes, four. You, Black, Potter, and Lupin."

"Remus? What did he do?" Padfoot demanded.

"Well you three certainly aren't intelligent enough to have been able to do the spell, so that leaves Lupin."

"Whatever," I growled, ticked. "Remus, do the counter-spell, please, so this jackwagon will go away." Once Remus had, Nott turned and left, saying,

"Welcome back, _Mauraders_."

I grinned at the glare Moony was giving me. "You have to admit, it was worth it."

McGonagall cut off his retort. "Now, without any more interruptions, we'll Sort our third years." She looked down at her scroll. "Avery, Piper!"

"Bitch," I muttered. Padfoot nodded while Prongs glared at the (unfortunately) beautiful foreign girl. Of course she was Sorted into Slytherin. No surprise there. Such a shame that looks like hers went to waste.

"Black, Regulus"

"Boo!" I yelled as the almost-mirror image of Sirius walked into view. He had the same looks as his brother, except he was shorter and smaller. He was immediately put in Slytherin, too.

"Black, Sirius"

"GO PADFOOT!" Prongs, Moony, and I yelled at once as Sirius walked up to McGonagall.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat screamed, and we all jumped up and down, clapping madly.

"Sit your asses down, you morons," Tonks said, laughing.

"Black, Trix" The girl didn't even have the hat on her head for half of a half of a second before the hat screamed out Slytherin.

"Lupin, Remus!" We repeated our cheering for Sirius except with Remus' name. He rolled his eyes at us as he walked back from being Sorted into Gryffindor.

"Malfoy, Severus." The whiny little blonde boy was put in Slytherin.

"Potter, James." We cheered for him as he was again put in Gryffindor.

"Your turn, our Foxy brother," Padfoot said, grinning. "Make us proud."

"Riddle, Helios," McGonagall yelled, and I made my way through the students, smiling and exchanging hellos as I went. The hat was placed on my head and was…silent. Then it's voice in my head said,

'_What have we here? Ah…the cruel one. You have certainly gotten worse over the years, have you not, Riddle Child? Cruel things spewing from you left and right, and not only do you to commit to it yourself, you have others follow you into torturing others, as well. You will only get worse; so there is no doubt where you belong…'_

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat screamed, and my world stopped. I froze, the smile melting off my face.

"Wh-what?" I muttered hoarsely. "Th-that's not possible! I can't be in Slytherin! I'm a Gryffindor!" I told McGonagall.

She looked stricken. "I-I…" She was also speechless. The whole school was starting to whisper. I took the hat off my head and handed it to McGonagall shakily. I had to get out of here. I…I needed some space to think, some room to breath. The unthinkable had happened. I walked briskly out of the courtyard, ignoring Fawkes outstretched hand to stop me. I ignored the stares I was getting, especially the hurt and confused ones coming from my friend.

_This is all a dream,_ I kept telling myself. Yeah, that was it. Any minute I was going to wake up and I would be sprawled out on the Hogwarts' Express seat in our compartment. I waited a full minute, but gave up. I suddenly became very ticked. I punched the nearest thing as hard as I could, which happened to be a huge oak tree.

"Shit," I hissed as I felt bones crack. Unable to hold anything in anymore. I took off running, where, I had no idea. I just ran and ran, and soon I was deep in the Forbidden forest. I tripped over a branch and went head over heels, and I felt my ankle twist and a bone in my leg snap.

"Damn it all!" I yelled up at the sky. I laid sprawled out on the forest floor, broken and hurting and just downright beaten, gazing up at the sky, wondering why this had happened to me. How it had happened. Then I remembered the Sorting hat's words. And before I blacked out from pain, all I could think was,

_What have _I _done?_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hey, Seshat here! So, this is my first time writing in a guy's POV, so please forgive me if some of Helios' thoughts and actions aren't entirely guy-ish or if there were things that I didn't add that were guy-ish. Oh well.**

**So! Hope you liked it! Yeah, I know, it was a REALLY long chapter, but what can I say? When I get into something, I can't stop writing! (At least, when I finally GET writing, that is…) But I can't promise you that all of my chapters will be this long, because honestly I don't know.**

**Alright! Shutting up now! I have a really bad habit of rambling on and on…**

**So please R&R people! Remember, if you read, you review! C'mon! In all honesty, that's the only fair thing, eh?**

**Until next time,**

**Seshat**


	4. Chapter 3: Nyx

Chapter 3

**Nyx**

_**The Lions' Den**_

**I** practically started to roll on the floor from laughing. Helios Riddle, Gryffindor Royalty, in _Slytherin_! I was practically crying, but straightened.

"I wonder what happened," Marie said, she being the only other third year besides me and some new kid.

"I know, the royal king dethroned in front of all of us," I chuckled. Suddenly a sharp tapping sounded and we all fell silent.

"You all had better stop talking so we can get on with the Sorting," Professor Moody called.

"Riddle, Nyx," Professor McGonagall called. I started to walk up to the stool. That's when I realized it, if Helios had been sorted into Slytherin...then what about me. It was too late for second thoughts; I was already in front of the stool. I sat down and felt the Hat's coarse leather descend on my head.

"_Hello again, young Riddle. You have grown so much in these past few years,"_ the Hat's deep crackly voice echoes through my ears, and a sound that sounded like laughed. "_I've heard so much about you in my office, all your tricks abroad and the mirth it caused...and, about the prophecy."_

I stiffened, I had never heard of a prophecy about me, nor any tricks. The Hat started to laugh before finally shouting for the whole school to hear.

"GRYFFINDOR!" I yanked the hat off my head and threw it to the ground, stepping on it with the heel of my boot, grinding it into ground.

"Miss Riddle," cried Professor McGonagall, but I stormed off, not even wanting to look back. I didn't stop when I arrived at the Gryffindor Banner, I kept walking, right pasting it and down into the Forbidden Forest. Quickly I took cover and watched as Professor Fawkes talked to a woman behind her.

The woman was average height, wearing a tan trench coat, jeans, and a button-down white shirt. Her right leg, however, was a wooden leg and her left hand was a hook. I tried to see her face, but it was cast in shadows. The woman nodded and started to walk in my direction.

"Professor McGonagall, please continue the sorting," Fawkes said, her tone making it clear that no questions were to be asked.

"Weasley, George," Professor McGonagall coughed after several attempts. A bright red haired boy walked up to the stool.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat yelled. I scoffed, turning on my heel and walking away.

"Miss Riddle," the same gruff voice that had told the school to be quiet said. I took off.

_I am not going back, definitely not._ I felt the shifting then, as a walked quickly away from Moody. My body was shrinking, sprouting red and black feathers, my eyes grew round and a beak sprouted instead of my mouth. A moment later I was soaring over the trees in the shape of a red and black barn owl.

I considered leaving Hogwarts, but I decided to stay and watch the Sorting. I flew to the Gryffindor Banner and landed on top of it. I clicked my beak and watched Marie get sorted into Slytherin.

"Ooooh, what a pretty owl," a girl below said. I turned to look at her with my mismatched eyes and she shrieked. I turned and took flight, hooting softly as I landed on top of Hogwarts. I shifted back into my human self and sat on the cool, rough tiles of the roof.

It was boring on the roof, but I had a spectacular view of the grounds except for the pruned grounds and lake, everything else was covered by the Forbidden Forest. I glanced at the lake and smiled, the lake was perfect. All the time at Durmstrang Piper and me- the smile slid off my face. Well either way I was still going swimming. I jumped from the roof and transformed into my owl form again.

Carefully I landed by the edge of the lake, closest to the Forbidden Forest. I was just about to shift back when I heard the sound of voices.

"You really think he'd betray us?" I rolled my eyes; it was none other than my newest classmate, Sirius Black.

"No way, the stupid hat just made a mistake," James Potter said. I noticed the voices were closer now and flew up to a tree branch to watch.

"But then what about Nyx; she was sorted into _our_ house," Black asked, and then they walked into sight five of them. Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Lily Evans.

"But Helios wouldn't do that. He absolutely _hates_ Slytherin," Evans said.

"Well then why is he there and not here?" Black asked. I almost swore he stomped his foot in frustration.

"Yes indeed, why?" I asked as I shifted back to human form and jumped down from the tree.

"You," Potter growled and glowered at me.

"Yes, me," I smirked.

"What do you want?" Tonks snarled.

"Well I _was_ going to swim, but you all intruded." I sighed dramatically.

"Then don't let us stop you," Black said, surprisingly calm. He just walked by, followed by the other four. I shrugged and watched them walk away.

Once they were out of sight, I stripped down to my tank top and underwear. I took a running start and dived into the lake. The cool chilling waters surrounded me, dark, empty, yet full of the mysterious. I kicked to the surface and took a deep breath as I broke surface.

"Isn't it cold?" a familiar Brazilian accent asked. I turned to see Piper standing there, her hand on her waist and glaring at me.

"Piper," I said. "Why're you here?"

"I came to say good-bye," Piper said.

"You're joking right?" I could tell by the way she stared at me that she was dead serious. "After everything?"

"You mean, you _betraying_ your own house, your friends, me?" she asked.

"Piper, I don't want to be in Gryffindor," I whispered.

"Well too bad, you already are, no changing that." Piper turned away and I watched her walk away. She sniffed and I watched her rub her face.

_She's crying_, I thought. All my life I've known Piper she has never _ever_ cried.

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt," said a voice behind me. I turned and came face to face with Black.

"What the hell do you want Black?"

"Didn't mean to, I just decided to test the water." He shrugged. I glared.

"Lame excuse," I said, as I bent my knees, positioning myself on a rock and jumped. Diving deep into the water. It was dark and I felt a little creeped out, every so often a fish swam into my vision. Something wrapped around my ankle and I twisted around and struck out with my other foot. It connected with something and I saw Black there, holding his nose and slowly saw the dark red liquid pour out and dissipate into the water around.

_Shit, _I thought. The blood was flowing slowly out of his nose. I grabbed him and yanked him up. We broke out of the water and I pulled him on shore.

"You are so _stupid_!" I muttered as he started to sit up and cough up water. "There are mermen in there who wouldn't think twice about attacking us! And your freakin' blood is a giant sign yelling 'Free meal right here! All you can eat buffet! Enjoy the two puny people!'"

"I'm—_cough—_not the one—_cough_—who kicked—_cough_—an innocent—_cough_—guy in the nose!" Black managed to get out through gasps. He took a deep breath and regained his breathing.

"Well I wasn't the one who grabbed onto someone's foot in the deep, dark depths of the lake!" I snapped back, standing up. "Thanks for ruining my nice, calm, relaxing swim." I stalked off to grab my clothes, redressed quickly, and looked back at Black, who was still lying in the sand. Not knowing why, I walked back over towards him.

He was laying with his back on the sand and his tan, strong arms were behind his head, propping it up. I looked down at his bare, muscular torso and chest and saw the long, thin scar running lengthwise across his chest. I knelt next to him and, without thinking about it, traced the scar with my fingers. Black opened his eyes and stared at me, with almost a mix of an amused and wary expression, but I didn't really think anything of it at the moment.

"Is that from me?" I asked, clearing my throat uncomfortably when I realized exactly _what _I'd been doing. He looked down at his chest and nodded.

"You're quite skilled with a knife," he muttered, looking at the shiny, pink skin. I said nothing, but watched as he got up and put on his robes. "The sorting's probably over, so…"

"Oh. Yeah. Wait! There's a small problem," I said, my bad mood resurfacing as I remembered I'd have to spend the night in the _Gryffindor _dorms, of all places. "I have no idea where the Gryffindor common room is or what the password is."

"It's fine. I know it, so you can follow me for just this once," Black sighed, and he started walking back towards the castle.

_What the _hell _are you doing, Nyx? _ I asked myself, but I still followed him without complaint up to the seventh floor and to a painting of a very fat lady in a frilly pink dress. _Fraternizing with the Enemy, that's what._

"Pygmypuff," Black said to the Fat Lady to which she replied,

"Oh, aren't they just the _cutest!" _ She laughed and her pictured frame swung open, revealing a passageway.

"Padfoot!" Potter yelled and pulled Black into the common room. Because I really didn't have anywhere else to go unless I'd rather stay in the passageway (which I was seriously considering), I followed the two boys.

"You again," Potter snarled when he saw me.

"Yeah, me. Sadly I can't control what house I get _stuck _in, so you're all stuck with me," I said emotionlessly.

"She's not _too _bad. Not _as _bad as Regulus made her sound, but pretty damn close," Black muttered to Potter. "I think it'd be possible to change her—"

"Regulus talks about me?" I asked, a fluttery feeling going through my stomach.

"More like boasts, but yeah. Probably won't anymore," Black said, smirking. My face fell and my heart twisted painfully.

"Oh yeah, I guess not. Wouldn't want to taint his blood like you already have," I said, my thoughts on Regulus. Shaking my head and putting on a steely look, I snapped, "So do any of you morons know where my room is?" Evans and Tonks shared a _very_ unhappy look.

"You're with us," Tonks growled. Saying nothing else, they led me up a flight of stairs and into a room. The room had three beds, one of which had my trunk on it. I flopped down, not even bothering to change my clothes, and fell right to sleep.

* * *

><p>The first night back at Hogwarts was horrible. I was sorted into Gryffindor, went swimming in the Black Lake with none other than Sirius Black, gave him a bloody nose, was probably seconds away from being eaten by a blood-thirsty merman, and then had to spend the night sleeping in the same dorm with my two <em>least <em>favorite people in the world. Oh joy.

I suppose I should be happy that nothing bad happened in the night. So when five o'clock came around I got up and left, not heading for breakfast, but my secret room. It was the Room of Requirement I walked past it thinking, _ I need a room to think. I need a room to think. I need a room to think._ I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. A familiar oak door appeared, out of habit I looked around, but who would be up at five in the morning?

When I entered the room I saw the same four black leather couches facing each other in the center of the room, a black square coffee table was set in the middle of the couches with a giant strategy game. I walked over to my favorite couch and flopped down. I remember last year when the students were allowed to come back for a month before Hogwarts collapsed again. That was the first time the other Slytherins and me came to this room and made it our own.

I sighed and leaned back, sinking into the cool, soft leather. Suddenly a pair of hands covered my eyes and I jerked forward, twisting around and pulling the person to me, wrapping my legs around them and putting them in a headlock.

I caught a whiff of the familiar smell of cinnamon. I released the person and they turned to face me. I was staring into the stormy eyes of Regulus Black.

"What the _hell_ was that for?" I snarled, standing up and knocking Regulus to the floor.

"What the hell was _that_ for?" Regulus asked as he stood up and flopped onto the couch across from me.

"What do you want?" I asked, glaring at him and sinking back into the leather couch.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"Us. We, well are we still…?"

"Are we what?" I snapped turning to face him. "Are we still dating? Well, based on the fact that I don't belong with you guys anymore, so, I think we aren't." My eyes were brimming with tears before I could stop them, so I hastily wiped them away furiously.

"Really? 'Cause I don't want this to end," he said, taking my face in his hand, lifting it up so he could look me in the eyes. I hastily took a step back, but he caught my arm and pulled me close to him. Our faces were so close our breath was mingling. I looked down at his lips, and then he leaned closer still and gently kissed me.

I was frozen and tense at first, but I quickly relaxed into the kiss and responded by kissing him back, realizing how scared I had been that he'd throw me away like all my other ex-friends. But the thought of them, of Piper, made me break the kiss.

"Regulus," I whispered, confused.

"Sorry," he said back, just as quietly. Neither of us moved to put any distance between us.

"What was that for?"

"That was me saying I'm sorry for everything you've had to go through, and that I don't want you to leave me." He said it so simply and so honestly, it touched my heart, which was normally so hard to reach. To say the least, he made me go speechless.

"I…um…you…but what about the rest of them?" I stuttered.

"You mean Piper and the others? Well, we just won't tell them. They threatened me yesterday to break up with you or else."

"I'm sorry Regulus."

"Don't be. Nyx, I'm the one—" Regulus stopped short, and then I heard the voices sounding close to the door.

_I need a place to exit here unnoticed, _I thought, and immediately a cabinet door swung open. I quickly walked into it, but before I made my way, I looked back at Regulus.

"See you later?"

"Of course," he replied without hesitation. I closed the door, smiling, and made my way down the dark tunnel. A minute later I came to a dead end and found a door. When I opened it, I fell out of my cupboard in Gryffindor tower.

"What the _hell_, Riddle?" Tonks shouted. Ignoring her, I closed the cabinet door and sighed, slumping back against the door, touching my lips lightly with my fingertips. A smile was playing across my lips.

"Is she…smiling?" Evans asked, sounding disturbed.

"I think so," Tonks whispered back to her friend. "Oi, Riddle, why did you choose now, of all times, to come out of the closet?"

"I just…" but I trailed off, letting her 'joke' slide just this once. Getting up, I grabbed my clothes and went to the bathroom and changed into them. I hurried out of the room and made my way to the Great Hall, and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. I picked up a waffle and slowly ripped it into tiny pieces, eating small bites at a time, chewing them over thoughtfully.

"So, Riddle," said a voice that was highly annoying in my ears. It was none other than Black, who was followed by his "crew"; Potter, Lupin, Evans, and Tonks.

"I never got back at you for the knife incident," Black said casually as he sat down across from me, his friends sitting next to him.

"Hmm, no need to thank me, Black. Although I must say I'm horrified at _just _how dirty your blood has become," I said, placing another piece of waffle in my mouth.

Potter went to stand up and probably hex me, but Black put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"But my blood is just like yours." Black smirked, like he had just made some great joke.

"True," I said anyways, "but you're also a blood-traitor."

"But you're forgetting one tiny important detail," Lupin spoke up, flashing a small victorious smile.

"And what would that be?" I rolled my eyes.

"You're a blood-traitor now, too," he said, "what with being sorted into Gryffindor and all." I swear, if looks could kill, the man would be dead already.

"Never," I snarled venomously, putting down the bite of waffle I was just about to put in my mouth, and I walked away from the horrid group.

"Good job Moony," I head Black whining. "You could have given us a heads up so we could have made fun of her, though!" I rolled my eyes and muttered something nasty under my breath.

"Miss Riddle," I heard a brisk female voice behind me say. _Oh shit,_ I thought. _Just you're luck you'd get caught cussing. _I turned around to face Professor McGonagall.

"Here's your schedule," she said, shoving the piece of parchment into my hands. I thanked Merlin that she hadn't heard me, because she was really strict about "minors" and the language they used. She turned around, thought of something, and turned back to face me.

"Oh yes, Miss Riddle?"

"Hmm?"

"Behave yourself." And with that she was gone.

_Tsk. Don't tell _me _what to do! _I thought, looking at my schedule as I exited the Great Hall. _Potions first. Great; Nott first period. _I shoved the schedule into my pocket and slowly made my way to class. When I entered the cool, dank classroom, I a sense of calmness immediately overcame me; potions had always been my best subject. I sat down at my old table, the one furthest from the front of the classroom and on the left side of the room. I pulled my leather-bound journal out of my bag, and the page I happened to flip open to had a picture of me, in owl form, on it.

"You again?" a voice groaned from behind me, causing a woodsy-smell to engulf me. "C'mon man! You're in my seat!"

"Black?" I asked, inhaling the scent. "Pine and not cinnamon?" I muttered. "Strange…"

"Pine?" Black asked, then shook his head and glared at me. "Move it, you freak. You're in my seat."

"Um, no." I smiled sweetly. "This is _my _seat."

"Quit flirting, Riddle. We know he's irresistible and all, but really, that's gross!" Potter said in a matter-of-fact voice. _Why do I care about their smells? _ I asked myself as I caught a whiff of Potter, who smelled like pomegranates. _What a weird smell for him, though. I would've imagined something less sweet…_

"Shut the hell up Potter," I snapped. "I have values, thank you very much, so I would _not _stoop so low as to flirting with that thing. And let me tell you, he's the _last _guy in this school who I would say is irresistible." I looked Potter up and down then added. "After you of course." I turned back to Black, who was wearing a stunned expression. "Anyways…back to the important matter at hand. I sat here first, so get your sorry little asses different seats."

Black had already recovered from my insults. "No can do, Riddle. If you won't move, then I guess you'll just have to sit at the same table as us." He sighed and sat at the far end of the table, leaving Potter to sit in the middle. I glared at both of them.

_Damn. I don't want to sit at the same table as _them_, of all people, but I won't lose this fight, _I thought.

"Do whatever you want, Black," I said coldly instead, shrugging. I picked up my journal, took a pencil out of my bag, and started to darken the lines of the picture of myself in owl form.

"Riddle." I looked up and glared at Black. "Why did you say 'pine' earlier?" he asked, oblivious to my glare.

"Not cinnamon," I said absently, returning to my drawing.

"Not cinnamon? What the hell does that mean?" Potter asked Black quietly. I sighed and put my pencil down.

"Regulus smells like cinnamon," I said, not sure why in the world I was bothering to explain myself to my enemies. Black and Potter shared a look.

"And the pine?" Black asked.

"Simple, really. You smell like pine."

"And me?" Potter asked.

"Pomegranate," I said. _Shut-up Nyx! _ I yelled at myself. I quickly closed my journal and returned it to my bag so I wouldn't have to look at the two guys. Time for a subject change. "So where's the rest of your gang?"

"Care of Magical Creatures," Potter said. I bit my lip. Talk about awkward. Thank Merlin I was saved by Professor Nott.

"Hurry up and take your seats so we can get this thing over with," Nott said in an extremely loud (and normal for him) voice. Nott started to take roll, but he paused at my name. I didn't even have to guess that it was mine; I could tell from the pause and his facial expressions (a nasty sneer) and the way his shoulders and back straightened.

"Here," I said, sighing. _Sadly…_ I added silently.

"Well I believe all of you have learned quite a bit at your other schools, so today I think we shall test you to see how much you morons have learned," Nott said, flicking his wand, making words appear on the green chalk board. _Felix Felixis,_ I read.

I smiled, cracking my knuckles and getting my cauldron and the ingredients I would need. We got started on our work quickly, because Nott didn't like to "waste time", as he put it. Halfway through the potion, I added a sprig of peppermint to the concoction.

Black made a laughing sound in the back of his throat. "I wouldn't just add random ingredients."

"Don't worry about it; it cancels out giddiness and fits of laughter," I told him, not taking my eyes off my work. He made a dismissive sound and ignored me for the rest of the hour.

At the end of class, I was the only one who had managed to complete the whole potion correctly. Sadly, Black and Potter were in a close second-place. Finally the bell rang and I got up, pulling my schedule out as I walked up the stairs.

"Damn. Freakin' Transfiguration next," I muttered crossly under my breath. And so the day went on until, finally, I flopped down on my bed in the Gryffindor Tower. In no time, I was asleep.

* * *

><p>"You know…she doesn't look like such a bitch when she's asleep," said a voice just on the outskirts of my conscious mind. I couldn't see, but from the sweet, flowery scent that filled the room, I was guessing it was a girl.<p>

"Yeah, even though she's still got that cold look. But I guess some are just born with it," another voice said, this one accompanied by a bubblegum smell.

My eyelids fluttered open and I frowned at Evans and Tonks from where they stood over me. "What the hell do you want?" I growled.

"And the royal bitch is back," Tonks muttered, rolling her eyes. I turned over, away from them, and fell back asleep.

* * *

><p><em>"Are you sure you want to give her away?" asked an old woman with a kind, knowing voice.<em>

_"Yes. She and the other one, too," a different, younger woman's voice said softly. Though I couldn't see anything that was happening, only hear what was going on, I could feel someone wrapping their warm arms around me, putting me in an embrace full of love._

_"What's the girl's name?" the old woman asked._

_"Nyx Grey Riddle," the young woman said._

_"And his name?" the older one asked.  
><em>

* * *

><p>I sat up quickly in bed; that dream…it had my mother in it, I'm sure of it. I don't know how I knew, seeing as I'd never before seen my mother, and that had been the first dream I'd ever had with her in it. And even then…I hadn't been able to see her, only to hear her voice. I laid back down, trying to go back to sleep, but so many questions and thoughts were running through my mind, including my confusion over my mother saying <em>'She and the other one, too'<em>. Did that mean I had a sibling? And if so…where was he?

Soon I just gave up on sleep and got up and quickly dressed in a swimsuit, sprawled a letter to Madame Valarie, and then grabbed some spare clothes before sneaking out of the dorm. Quickly and quietly I ran down the halls of the castle and out across the courtyard to the far side of the lake. I carefully dropped my back behind a tree and pulled off my shoes, anticipating the nice, relaxing swim I was about to have. I tensed my muscles, then bolted, running for the lake, and jumping in the freezing cold water.

As soon as my head resurfaced, I felt more awake, glad that the cold, black water surrounded me. I sighed and laid back on my back, floating, just relaxing and enjoying the night air.

"So. My mother was there when I was put up for adoption," I muttered to myself. "But…Madam Valerie had told me I was just left there." I sighed again and was about to dive back under the water when a pair of hands covered my eyes. I stiffened, but relaxed some when I heard his voice.

"Guess who," he said.

"Regulus," I said and turned away from him. Regulus was floating on the water next to me."How'd you know where I was?" I asked.

"I saw you walk out here." Regulus smiled. I got up out of the water and walked to the shore, grabbing my backpack.

"What do you want?" I asked, not so kindly.

"I just wanted to see my girlfriend, jeez." Regulus said.

I stiffened, then turned away from him, hiding my blush. "Sorry, Reg, Im not in the best of moods." I sighed.

"Oh," Regulus said glumly. I looked at him curiously then out at the woods.

"Want to fly?" I asked. Regulus perked up. "Race you," I said and motioned for him to join me on the shore. I waited for him to climb out next to me.

"Accio Broom," Regulus flicked his wand and his lightningbolt shot from around the castle and as it slowed in front of Regulus, he climbed on. "Ready,"

"Set," I smiled. Suddenly I was shifting, shrinking down and having my eyes widen, feathers shot out and I flapped her wings.

"Go!" Regulus shouted and he kicked off. I flew up into the air and shot off, Regulus was no match for me. Even though the lightningbolt was the fastest broom in the world it was no match for my muscles. Owls aren't necessarily fast, but I had special muscles. My muscles were mixed in with the owls made me very strong. As an owl though I have no sense of smell or touch so when I become a human than my senses are heightened.

I landed quickly on the room of the Owlery. "I win," I laughed as I transformed back into a human quickly changing into clothes before Regulus appeared a minute later.

"Why are you so fast as a bird?" Regulus whined. "Even my lightningbolt can't compare."

"'Course not Reg, better luck next time." I chuckled and stuffed my swimsuit into the bag, using my wand to dry myself off. Suddenly I felt Regulus's arms around me and I turned, he hugged me, catching my lips and we kissed. There was a loud bang from the Owlery door swung open and I stepped back from Regulus and blushed scarlet. Standing there in the doorway was Sirius Black, a surprised expression on his face.

"Black?" I gasped in surprise.

"Riddle, Regulus, don't let me stop you." Black said and walked around us, clicking his tongue and a small elf owl flew down. Black tied his letter and I glared at him, Regulus stepped closer to me. "Lets go," he said.

"I think I'll stay, I need to send a letter anyway." I said and pulled a parchment from my bag, I had written before heading out.

"I'll see you then?" Regulus said, though it sounded more like a question. I nodded as he walked out. I opened the paper and looked at it. _Dear Madam Valarie, I had a dream about hearing my mother talking to you. But you said that you found me on the doorstep. What really happened, madam? Xo, Nyx._ I rolled it back up and tied it to an owl.

"So Riddle, you and Regulus," Black said.

I stiffened and half-turned to Black. "Yes, for about two years now." I glowered.

"Well I knew that much, but I meant the snogging."

"Oh that," I blushed scarlet and turned back around to walk away from Black. "He just kinda does it."

"So he is bad?"

"Well I wouldn't say that."

"So he is good?"

"How the hell would I know?"

"You mean he was your first?"

I swung around and my knuckles connected with his jaw. I had done it without thinking and I regretted nothing.

"Ouch, I guess I touched a nerve," Black muttered rubbing his jaw.

"Well now you won't come near me," I growled.

"Was kidding jeez. Calm down," Black said.

"Calm down, Black now you're just pushing your –" But I never finished, suddenly Regulus was flying across the room his fist swinging and Black was flying into a wall.

"Reg," I said but Regulus didn't hear me. Seeing as he was locked in a fight with Black. I watched as Regulus punched Black again, Black doubled over but brought his knee up and hit Regulus in his private. Suddenly a jet of magic passed by me and a voice said.

"_Inpedimenta!_" I watched as it hit Reg and Black, stopping them mid-fight. I pulled Regulus towards me and the spell broke. Regulus straightened up and wiped the blood from his lip. Black slumped against the wall, breathing heavily.

"Thanks," I said and turned to look at the spell caster. I was shocked to see a guy, fifteen years old, and totally perfect. He had a slightly nerdy look to him, but it suited him. He wore glasses over his violet eyes that went perfectly with his flawless white skin; his black hair was styled slightly messy and a little shaggy. He had muscles but didn't look overly buff and was quiet tall.

"Detention," was all he said. "All three of you."

"What?" Regulus asked.

"I said -," but Regulus interrupted him.

"I heard what you said, but Nyx didn't have anything to do with it."

"Well she didn't try to stop the fight," Mr. Perfect said.

"Its okay Reg," I sighed. "I'd get it sooner or later anyways."

"Saturday at 10, go to the lake for your detention," Mr. Perfect said and left the room.

"Who is he?" I growled.

"No idea," Regulus said and started to walk away. "Coming?" he asked, I nodded.

"Reg, why'd you join the fight?" I sighed. "You just got yourself in more trouble."

"He had messed with you," Reg said simply.

* * *

><p>The sun had finally risen over the trees as I walked into the Grand Hall. I headed for the Gryffindor table and looked carefully before spotting just the redhead I was looking for.<p>

"Evans" I said and sat next to Evans. "You know all the prefects right?" I asked, Evans looked up at my surprised.

"Yeah," she said hesitantly.

"Well there is this guy, 15ish, tall, black hair, glasses, violet eyes?" I asked urgently.

"Prefect?" Evans looked confused and shook her head slightly, "there is no prefect like that."

"So then he can't give detention?" I asked.

"No," Evans said still confused.

"Great, tell Black we don't need to worry."

"About?" Black asked as he sat across from Evans.

"Detention, that guy wasn't a prefect so we needn't to worry." I stated simply.

"That was Damion," Evans whispered, her voice saying _Oh dammit_.

"Who?" Black and I asked at the same time, glaring at each other before looking at Evans again.

"Damion Umbridge, he looked 15 right?" Evans asked. We nodded slowly. "Okay well Damion is the caretaker. He's a total genius and graduated Hogwarts after just two years. He's total eye-candy as well, every girl just _loooves_ him," Evans sighed.

"Caretaker?" Black and I said in unison, "Oh damn." We glared at each other.

"Stop copying me!"

"Me? You're copying me!" We both glared and crossed our arms.

"If I didn't know better? I'd say you both were flirting," Lupin said as he and Potter walked up.

"But you do know better," Black and I snarled. We glared at each other and I broke eye contact and looked at Evans.

"So he can give punishment?" I asked Evans, ignoring Lupin and Potter.

"Yes, but why does that," she broke off as she took a look at Black's face, noticing the black and blue bruise forming on his jaw, the slightly bloody nose, and the beginning of a black eye. "Sirius, what happened?"

"Well -," Black started but I interrupted him.

"I punched him," I said simply then got up. I was about to walk away before I turned to Evans. "Thanks, I guess." I turned again.

"So what happened?" I heard Evans ask.

"Damion, or whatever his name was, walks in and gives us all freakin' detention."

"All? So you and Riddle? Mate, Im so sorry," Potter said sympathetically to Black.

"And Regulus, he joined in after a bit." Black sighed. I chuckled and started to walk again, pulling my schedule from my bag.

_Defense next, huh? _I thought, _great_. Slowly I walked it the classroom, and even though I wasn't the first to leave the great hall, I was the first to the classroom. I stopped midway through the door and stared at the room.

"What the hell?" I whispered. The room was completely different from the last time. The walls were plain black stone, but the floor was a fuzzy black carpet, and instead of desks there were a ton of colorful bean bags.

"Pick a beanbag Miss riddle." A gruff female voice said, she walked past me and I covered my nose.

_Cigarettes._ I thought, but I pulled a green bean bag into the corner either way. Slowly the other students walked in, they had the same reaction as me. When the bell finally rang Professor Moody walked to the front of the room.

"Hello, I am Annabeth Moody, do _not_ call me Moody." She glared. "I am not old enough to be called that." Annabeth said, even though she was glaring she had a nice face though it was covered in scars. She had electric blue eyes that swept the room, but the oddest thing was her wooden right leg and hooked left hand.

As the lesson went on I started to doze off, bored, Defense had always bored me when suddenly Black was next to me.

"What do you want?" I yawned not even bothering to sound rude.

"Damion, the detention, tell Regulus not to cause trouble. I asked around and it seems like Damion's strict. Lily wasn't exaggerating when she said that he was a genius. Graduating his second year, smarter than the students and staff combined. But since he was too young for work in the ministry Fawkes offered him a place here."

"Why're you telling me this?" I asked.

"Because Regulus needs to know." Black said simply. "If we act bad during the detention we'll be given another."

"Fine," I sighed.

"Riddle, Black, do you care to share what you are talking about?" Annabeth's voice interrupted.

"No thanks," Black said.

"Miss Riddle?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"No," I said.

"Continuing on," Annabeth said and turned back to the class.

"Black," I said, "don't fight Reg again, there is enough trouble as is. We don't need to cause anymore."

"Worried about me? How sweet," Black said sarcastically.

"Like hell," I sighed.

"You know what Riddle," Black said as the bell rang, "You're not so bad after all."

"Just wait Black," I smiled devilishly and walked out the door. "Just wait."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry for the boring chapter, the next one is pretty boring too. I mean mine, not Seshat's. Also I'm really sorry for not updating lately but with testing and everything I just don't have the sorry for grammatical errors/spelling mistakes/writing in third-person (I originally write in third person). I'd like to add that I had to delete the first version of this chapter because there were just so many mistakes.  
><strong>

**Xo, Nisaba.  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 4: Helios

_Chapter 4_

**Helios**

_Aftermath_

* * *

><p><strong>I<strong> slowly opened my eyes, feeling groggy and disoriented. I looked around in the dim, early morning light. I was sprawled out on the forest ground, and, for some reason, I hurt in various places. I placed my right hand on the ground to sit up but quickly withdrew it, yelping in pain. I looked down at my hand and saw that my knuckles and fingers didn't look right.

"Shit," I muttered. My freakin' hand was broken. So I stood up, and then crashed to the ground, landing on my hand, furthering the damage. I touched my right leg, trying to feel if there was anything wrong, and found several bones broken.

"Bloody hell," I growled out there a sudden wave of pain. "This is a bunch of bullshit!" Several squirrels and birds scattered at my yell. There was now no way I was going to get out of the forest, and judging from the trees and the amount of light, I was pretty deep in.

I flung myself back in a fit of rage, glaring at the tops of the trees. I was going to die. I thought about yelling for help, but stopped. No one would probably hear me, and if, by some miracle, someone did, no one would come help me. Not after last night. I had finally done it. I had taken our pranks too far, and that had caused me to turn Slytherin.

"Helios!" I jerked my head up, looking around. Call me crazy, but it sounded like Lily's voice, off in the distance.

"Oh shut-up, stupid voices in my head," I told myself. "I'm _really _not in the mood for your chatter at the moment."

"Helios Riddle!" I head a gruff, female voice yell. "If you're out in these woods, yell yer head off or I'm gonna leave your ass out here!"

I laughed. Now the voices were getting funny. But then I thought…well, I couldn't be _that _insane, could I? Could there really be someone looking for me? Or was it after all just a part of my emotionally-drained imagination?

"Hell, I'll take being thought crazy over being stranded out here," I told the rock that was sitting in front of me.

"Damn. It's not a good sign if I'm talking to _you, _is it?" Shrugging, I yelled, "LILY! Are you out there?"

"Oh my god!" I heard a girl scream. "Helios!" Then I heard someone tearing through the woods.

"Wait! Miss Evans! Be careful running through these woods!"

"Where are you at, Helios?" Lily called. I saw her bright red hair run into view.

"Over here Lily!" She turned around, saw me, and in less than a second had thrown her arms around me.

"I was so worried about you!" she said. "I'd thought…" She punched me instead of finishing her sentence. "Don't _EVER _do that to me again, young man!"

"I'm sorry," I said in a defeated voice. "You don't have to pretend you still care for me anymore, Lily. I know you guys hate me. Hell, _I _hate me."

"No. No we don't Helios! Just because you were put in Slytherin doesn't mean _anything_. You are still Helios, and you always will be. Nothing will change who _you _are. You're too pure."

"But…it's _Slytherin_—"

She sighed. "There were some great witches and wizards that had hearts of gold and were full of good that came from Slytherin."

"I guess you're right. I'm sorry I disappointed you, though."

"_Disappointed _me? You haven't! What have you done that's supposed to have disappointed me? So get the negative thoughts out of your head!"

"They hate me now, don't they?"

She was quiet, looking at me, trying to find something there. "No. They don't. They just don't understand. They're confused and frustrated, but not at you. You're still their foxy man."

I laughed, making her smile. "Good. Out of all things, I was worried about _that_."

"Miss Evans, please don't run away from my sight like that. If you would've gotten yourself killed it would have been on my head." Looking behind Lily, I saw an average-height woman who seemed to be in her mid thirties. Her left leg was a wooden peg and her right hand had a hook attached instead of an actual hand. She was well built for a woman; her face had many scratches and scars from previous battles. She had wavy, sandy brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail and bright blue eyes.

"I'm sorry Professor Moody," Lily said. "I was just afraid I'd lose him if I didn't go then when he called."

The woman, Professor Moody, turned her eyes on me. "So _this _is the famous Helios Riddle."

Mocking her tone and look, I said, "So _this _is the mysterious Professor Moody."

She grinned. "Name's actually Annabeth Moody, actually, but, yeah, that's me."

"C'mon Helios. We'd better get you back. I know of three boys who really need to see you," Lily said, standing up and offering me her hand.

I grimaced. "I'd love to Lily, but I'm not going anywhere."

She frowned. "Why not? Do you like it out here or something?"

"Nah, it's not that." I held up my hand for her to see and gestured at my leg and ankle.

Professor Moody whistled. "Oooo Merlin! We've got some damage here!"

"What did you _do?" _Lily yelled, gingerly touching my arm to get a better look. I tried not to wince in pain.

"Let's see…well, for this bit here I punched a tree. I went to kick a rock and somehow caught my ankle on something else at full force. Then, I was running, tripped, rolled, and landed, and I snapped a couple bones in my leg."

"Oh, is that it?" Professor Moody asked.

"Yup, think so." Lily was staring at me in disbelief. "What?" I asked her.

"So all of those anger-management classes that you take three times a week since you were eleven have done _nothing_ to help with your issues?"

"Uh…" I thought about it. "No. They just made it worse, I think. Those psychotherapists are _so _damn annoying! I mean, who's _really_ going to take deep breaths instead of full out punching somebody or something when it comes down to it. And—"

"Shut-up," Lily said, shaking her head. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Alright," Professor Moody said. "Let's get you back to the school. Are all the leg injuries in one leg?"

"My right, yeah."

"Right leg, right hand. Perfect. Miss Evans, help him up. Mr. Riddle, put your good arm around her shoulders and keep all weight of that bad leg. Miss Evans, help him move, and follow me."

"No! I can't do that! If I fall I'll crush her!" I yelled in protest. "She's too little! Have you _looked _at me? I'm five six foot one and weigh 190!"

"She'll manage," was her gruff reply, and off she went, clearing a nice, wide path for us.

"Let's not make this any harder," Lily said, putting my arm around her shoulders. "The pain must be getting worse by now."

I laughed humorlessly. "You have no idea." I then put all my weight on my left leg and stood up. I don't know who had a bigger struggle, Lily trying to walk lugging around about half my weight or me trying to hobble and not make it too difficult for her, but ending up doing something to send twinges of pain through my body. It was extremely awkward and painful (for me, at least), but we managed to make it out of the forest and onto the grounds.

"You know, I'd thought that I'd end up in the Hospital Wing fairly soon after school started," I told Lily as we hobbled over the grounds, "but I never thought it would be _right _after. Literately."

She grinned over at me. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but, I kind of see why you did do it. We'd all be lying through our teeth if we said that we would have taken it like it was the most obvious choice in the world. _I, _as well as most other people, would have reacted differently than you did, but then again I don't have issues."

"Are you calling me mental, Miss Evans?"

"I'm beginning to truly think you are," she muttered, a sly smile on her face. A few people that were already out on the grounds stopped to look at us, whispering things that I'm sure they're thanking their lucky stars that I didn't hear. Luckily, there were no Slytherins out, but there to contradict my luck was quite a few Gryffindors, all of whom stared at me with either confusion, distrustful, or hateful looks.

As we neared the doorway, I saw a girl with long black hair, head bowed, kicking her feet absentmindedly. Lily held a finger up to her lips, mouthing _Tonks_. I nodded, but it was that moment that Professor Moody chose to reappear and check on our progress, saying rather loudly,

"Hurry it up before the halls get crowded. We'd have a real good time getting him to the Hospital Wing during that mass of confusion." She disappeared again as Tonks' head snapped up. Her eyes fell on Lily and me, and her hair, as if consumed by fire, immediately shrunk to the base of her neck and turned a blood-red color. In seconds, she was on her feet, a look of rage evident in her features, and she stormed over to us.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" she yelled at the top of her lungs at me. She balled her hand up in a fist and punched me in the stomach. I fell forward, gasping, but yelped at the fiery pain as I landed on my bad leg.

"Tonks!" Lily shrieked, dropping to her knees beside me. I bit my tongue, holding back another yell as immense pain swallowed me.

"Oh Merlin…" Tonks said, her expression turning fearful and her hair growing long again and turning silvery-white. "I'm so sorry Helios! I didn't mean…" She grabbed me by my bad wrist and yanked me up. I hissed in pain as she threw my arm around her.

"Careful!" Lily barked as I doubled over, taking deep breaths.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks wailed. "I'm not trying to—"

"Let's just go before we hurt him even more," Lily said, putting my other arm gently around her shoulders.

We made it to the Hospital Wing without any more incidents. Lily and Tonks helped me lay down on one of the beds, and Lily told Tonks and the healer, Don, what had happened and where I was hurt at (as if they couldn't tell by looking). Don, a _huge _buff guy that was as wide as he was tall with dark hair and equally dark eyes, examined my injuries, then shook his head. My arm in his grasp scared me; I was sure that if he wanted to, he could have snapped it in two, which was saying something, because I had really well muscled arms. But, like I said, this guy was _huge._ He looked more like an Auror than anything else, especially _not _a healer at a school. He, with such a girly-boy name, was an amusing sight here.

"You'll have to stay here for a couple of days," Don said as he went to go mix me a potion, "that way you'll have enough time to heal properly and rest."

"Alright," I muttered. I wasn't anxious to start calling the Slytherin dorms "home". Not by a _long _shot.

"Here you go," Don said in his deep, gruff voice. "Bottoms up!" I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, plugged my nose, and poured the familiarly disgusting potion down my throat.

"Ugh! Wa…ter…!" I got out around my gagging. Don, smirking, handed me a small glass of ice-cold water.

"Are we going to have a repeat of your time at Beauxbatons?" he asked. His sister, Jewl, a tiny woman, was the healer at Beauxbatons, and she had told Don about her many experiences and the various strange injuries she came across from having to treat Sirius, James, Remus, and I constantly almost every week.

I drained the glass before I answered. "Erm…we'll try to cut it down to every _other _week for you."

He chuckled and took the potion back to his office. "It's because you boys had a crush on my sister, huh?"

"Dang. You figured it out." I pretended to moan. "We're dead. Older, protective brother is out for blood."

He laughed and said, "I'll let it slide, just this once."

"Thank Merlin. My rear-end is saved!"

"So…you gonna be alright?" Tonks asked tentatively after a second.

"Yeah. Should be. It's not the first time I've broken several bones at once. And I'm sure it certainly isn't going to be the last."

She nodded, then said, "What about…you know…the Sorting? How are you after that?" I grimaced and dropped my eyes from her, but before I could answer, Nyx walked in and said,

"Don, do you have—" She stopped abruptly when she saw the three of us, glaring.

I smiled sardonically at her. "How was your first night in the Lions' Den, Riddle? Strange you're still alive and kicking. Thought you'd have been ripped to shreds by now since you can't hide behind you're little demon-spawns you've raised from hell."

She copied my smile and tone. "Great, thanks to your temperamental friends there," she said, gesturing at Lily and Tonks. "They've been _great _roommates."

"When you actually show your face and quit hiding like a coward, you'll get the welcoming you deserve, bitch," Tonks snapped.

Nyx shrugged it off and focused her attention back on me. "You, however, will not be so fortunate. As soon as you set foot in the Vipers' Nest…" She grinned cruelly. "Oh I can't _wait _to hear about your first night there. And don't you worry about it being your last… Oh no, they'll keep you around for fun until they get bored with you. And you…you have about three year's worth in you."

"You poor, insufferable—" Tonks was cut off (and stopped from punching Nyx in her face, which she _wouldn't _have been able to stop from happening) by Don coming out of his office, yelling,

"_OUT!_ Everyone!"

"See you later Helios," Lily said, kissing me on the cheek.

Tonks hugged me and said, "Don't worry about a thing. We've got your back, as we always will."

Before Nyx left, she turned around and said, "Quit delaying the inevitable, Riddle. You'll have to face your doom sometime, and the longer you put it off, the worse it'll be in the end."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So…yeah. Not much to say because, well, there's just not much I have in mind. Not my talkative self at the moment, as I'm dead tired.**

**So all I can say is if you read, you REVIEW!**

**Thanks!**

**Seshat**


	6. Chapter 5: Nyx

_Chapter 5_

_**Nyx**_

_A Simple Saturday . . . Or Not So Much_

**S**aturday came quickly and in the morning as the owls came in Black, Regulus, and I got an owl from Damion. _You are going to get wet so bring extra clothes and wear a swimsuit. Be there at 10 sharp, don't bring a wand_. I looked up from the paper and connected eyes with Regulus and nodded and I looked away down the Gryffindor table to look at Black, he nodded as well holding up his piece of paper.

When I arrived at the lake Regulus was already there glaring daggers at Damion. I arrived with Black, seeing as we left at the same time.

"You're fishing." Damion said simple.

"Fishing?" Regulus asked.

"With your hands." Damion added.

"Great," I muttered and took off my robe. Revealing the one piece beneath, now normally I would've worn a bikini if Black and Damion weren't there. The one piece was halter style with my back exposed and was a light brow with a low cut. Subconsciously I wrapped my arms to cover myself. Regulus was wearing a black tanktop and dark green trunks. Sirius pulled off his white tanktop and stood there in just his golden trucks. Damion was also wearing trunk and a tanktop, both navy blue.

"Are you doing this too?" I asked, eying the trunks.

"You have to have an adviser." Damion answered.

I sighed and took a few steps back, then ran and jumped onto a rock protruding fro the water. I climbed the rock next to it and the next until I was almost twenty feet in the air.

"Nyx," Regulus whined as he stood on the shore.

"Just looking for fish." I said and looked around. To my right there was a nice clear patch in the middle fo the lake. I bend my knees and launched myself into the water. As i hit I struck out and swam to the middle. A large fished passed me and I gripped it. When I arrived on shore I tossed it into the bucket at Damion's feet.

"And that ladies and gentlemen, is how you catch a fish," I smiled and bowed slightly.

"I'll catch a gibber one." Regulus and Black said in unison, they glared at each other then sprinted into the water. I turned to look at Damion.

"Care to join in the fun?" I asked.

"Detention isn't supposed to be fun." Damion said, totally serious.

"Come on, you're 15, have some fun."

"How'd you know I was 15?" Damion asked. I shrugged, no use lying.

"Evans told me, she also told me you're a complete genius and every girl is completely in love with you." I explained.

"Every girl? I never noticed." Damion said.

"You never noticed that you're totally gorgeous?"

"No, but that being said are you completely in love?" He asked me.

"No way in hell, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends. But come one lets join in the competition." I laughed and pulled Damion by the arm into the water with me. When Black and Regulus came back (empty handed if I must add) we had a competition. Who could catch the biggest fish, the quickest, the most? In the end Black won the most, I won the quickest and Damion won the biggest. Regulus, however, didn't win anything since he refused to participate.

"So what are all the fish for?" I asked Damion as we lugged our buckets up to the castle.

"The fair tonight."

"Fair?" I asked.

"Yeah, the Halloween one." Regulus interrupted, walking between Damion and me.

"Oh, today's Halloween isn't it." I sighed.

"Aren't you going?" Regulus asked, I shook my head. "But _pleeeaaassseee_ Nyx." Regulus whined.

"Why should I?" I asked switching the bucket to my right hand. "Halloween is my _least_ favorite holiday." Regulus tried to argue but I stopped him with a glare. Since we had missed breakfast and lunch was jut about to start I walked quickly to the Gryffindor tower, changed, used my wand to clean off the smell, and then headed down to lung. By the time I got there lunch had started and I was sitting at the far end of the the table in my normal seat.

_Halloween, _I scoffed. _Stupid holiday._I picked up my goblet and took a sip of water. I suppose I should go and spend some time with Regulus. I looked up at the Slytherin table and my mismatched eyes met with Regulus's stormy ones. I nodded slowly and Regulus smiled childishly. I stood up and quickly left as Piper turned to see what Regulus was looking at. I walked out of the Great Hall to see the Gryffindor Royalty, minus Lily and Tonks. I believe they called themselves the Marauders. I didn't want to go back into the hall and they looked like they were having an important conversation so I opened the closest door and hid in it. The footsteps stopped just in front of my hiding place.

"So this was whos plan?" Lupin asked.

"Foxy's," Black said, "But what does it matter? It's bloody brilliant." And then they were talking about their plans which was pretty much just a big prank that they were going to do at the fair.

_Perfect,_ I thought and smiled evilly as a perfect plan to mess up their plan formed in my head. _Let the games begin._ Since it was Saturday there were no classes, I decided to head to my room. I need a costume to get in the Fair, but I had nothing. I was laying face down on my bed when Evans and Tonks walked in.

"So we just need to get the potion and then head to the fair around 4." Evans said as they walked into our room. I laid still, maybe they wouldn't see me.

"I can't believe the guys agreed to this." Tonks chuckled.

"Yea, but there is something they aren't telling us." Evans said.

"You mean like a plan?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah, I heard it was something about a pumpkin, but thats it. They stopped after I got too close." Evans sighed. I chuckled and sat up in my bed. Evans shrieked and Tonks swore.

"How long have you been sitting there?" Evans asked.

"Been here since lunch. I've been looking for a costume." I sighed.

"Go as yourself, you're scary enough." Tonks said.

"Good idea," I said, surprisingly not sarcastic. "You guys were talking about their prank right? I heard the whole thing."

"why would they allow _you_ to hear but not _us__?"_ Tonks asked in disbelief.

"Well they don't have much choice when you're hiding in a closet." I shrugged.

"You were eaves dropping?" Evans asked, but at the same time Tonks said.

"You were hiding in a closet? Again? Damn girl, make up you're mind about what you're going to be. And when you come out for good, leave us the hell alone."

"Trust me," I said dryly. "You're not my type."

Tonks shook her head but Evans just stared at me. "So what are they planning?" She asked.

"What? You want information from me?" I said in false surprise.

"Riddle, please stop saying nonsense. We want the information. We don't care how we get it." Tonks growled. I smiled and got up.

"No, I think its more fun to just let it be a surprise." I chuckled to myself at the thought of their prank. I hate to admit it but their plan was pure genius, my counter-prank was even better. I started to walk down to the Common Room. I saw the Marauders sitting around the fire where I had sadly left my backpack. I walked over and they immediately stopped talking.

"What do you want Riddle?" Potter asked. I glared at him but walked through their circle and picked up my bag. I walked away, I was not in the mood to argue with Potter.

"Wonder what her problem is" Lupin said.

"What _isnt_ her problem?" Potter asked.

_Well your problem will be bigger at the fair_ I thought. They laughed, everyone in the room turned to look at me. I stopped moving and turned back. Putting a hand on my hip and smiled. "Well at least I can tell the person I like that I actually do." I said to Potter. I turned away from him. "Don't forget to hide your antlers." I walked off and I heard the Marauders whispering in a circle.

The truth is I've known for years that they were all animagas and I also knew that Potter was in love with my room mate, and Lupin like the other but he asked a innocent question. I don't need to get back at him just yet. I looked down at my watch, 3:40.

"Nyx," said a familiar voice, accompanied by the smell of cinnamon.

"Reg." I turned and hugged Regulus, but Regulus held a hand up and I stopped. "Sorry, I can't have you messing up my costume." Reg said seriously. I stared at him for a second then doubled over in laughter. Regulus was wearing a neon pink bowler hat and a long brown cloak and used magic to dye his hair snow white.

"I'm very sorry Minister." I said sarcastically and bowed to him.

"Shut up, it was Piper's idea. What about you, you're not dressed up." Regulus said.

"Im scary enough." I said serous. Regulus was about to say something when Professor Ivory's voice echoed over the castle.

"Students please make your way to the fair at this time. Remember your costume!" Fawkes announced.

"Let's go." I said and pulled Regulus along. The fair was going to be _sooo_ much fun.

**A/N: Sorry for the long and boring chapter. I'll make the next one better. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.**


	7. Chapter 6: Helios

Chapter 6

**Helios**

_**BOOM!**_

* * *

><p>"<strong>I<strong>f he's asleep, you three are leaving," I heard Don say from afar. I was about to open my eyes and be nosey when I heard one of the "three" speak. I decided that I didn't want to face them now, or ever again, come to think of it, despite Lily and Tonks repeatedly saying there wasn't anything to worry about.

"Aw come on. We're not gonna bug him or anything…" Prongs was saying in an innocent tone. "We just want to see with our own eyes that he's alive."

"I can assure you, Potter, he's going to live. All he needs now is some rest and to be safe from his fellow mischief-makers. _That _would not allow him to relax."

"I'll make sure they behave, Don," Lily said.

"Good luck with that," Don muttered, and I heard him walk back to his office.

"Thank Merlin for you, Lily," Prongs said in an awed voice. "What would we do without you?"

"I would probably be a hell of a lot happier and more accomplished if I didn't know you Potter," Lily said. "But you, you would probably just stalk some other poor, innocent girl."

Padfoot snorted. "Poor and innocent are _not _two words _I'd _use to describe you, Evans."

"Well I—"

"Alright, you guys," Moony said, interrupting an argument. "Lily, you've brought us far enough. You might want to go back to Tonks before she rips that poor boy's head off."

Lily laughed. "Remus, there's only _one _guy I can think of that Tonks would be okay if he flirted with her, and the guy is _not _Frank Martin." I pictured Lily shaking her head. "But you're right. Off I go, then."

I heard Lily's soft footsteps fade away, and then heard Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs come over and take seats next to me.

"He doesn't look any different," Padfoot mused.

"Sirius," Moony said in an exasperated voice. "How many times are we going to have to go through this? Just because he's a Slytherin now doesn't mean he's going to grow fangs and claws and start spouting out fire when he's mad. He's still Helios."

"I wonder why the Sorting Hat put him in that horrid house," Prongs mused. "Helios was one of the _last _people I'd ever expect to be put in Slytherin." Moony and Padfoot muttered their agreements.

"Maybe the Hat's getting old," Padfoot said. "And with that old age it became senile."

"You know, you could be on to something," Moony said. "Maybe it got Helios and Nyx mixed up, seeing as they're the only two that had their houses switched. And it would make sense, seeing as one is sorted right after the other and both their last names are Riddle. It only makes sense!"

"Do you think if you went to Fawkes and told her about this she'd switch them?" Prongs asked excitedly.

"It's worth a try," Padfoot said. "I don't think I can stand one more night with that horrible little bitch in Gryffindor."

"I imagine that would be the worst omen you could get at the start of your day," I said finally, opening my eyes to look at my best friends.

"Helios!" Prongs wailed.

"You're alive!" Padfoot said in the same voice.

"We are _not _going through your two's whole speech again, so shut your traps," I said, smiling.

"Glad to see you're not injured mentally or anything absurd like that," Moony muttered. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that I know you guys don't hate my guts, thanks." My three friends exchanged guilty glances, then dropped their eyes. "Oh. Okay, I see. Well, it was nice of you guys to come check in on me. I guess I'll see you around."

"No! Just wait, Helios, wait," Moony said. "We _never _hated you. And we won't."

"Well, unless you turn into—"

"Shut it," Moony hissed at Padfoot. "Which we _all _know you won't."

"Yeah. It was the Sorting Hat's fault you're in that bloody house, not yours," Prongs said, smiling slightly.

"That may be, except for the fact that the Hat told me that I was cruel and that I've been nothing but horrible to everyone, and that I had other people copying my actions. It also said I was only to get worse." Prongs and Padfoot blinked, dumbfounded, while Moony's eyes were wide.

"There's no way," Moony snapped. "None at all!"

"What? What are we—"

"What the Hat was saying was that Helios' pranks, _our _pranks, are cruel actions. Except the Sorting Hat thought that it was all _Helios'_ fault, not ours," Prongs told Padfoot.

"That's a bunch of bullshit!" Padfoot scoffed. "Our pranks aren't cruel or dangerous! And sure, most of the pranks may be Foxy's ideas, but we have our own ideas _and _we willingly take part and make his ideas possible! This is ridiculous! I'm going to Fawkes _right _now to get this shit straightened out."

"Hold it for a sec, Padfoot," Prongs said, grabbing Padfoot by his shirt and making him sit back down. "First, let's talk business."

"Business?" I asked warily.

"Yes, _business_. As you well know, Halloween is tomorrow, and since school started so late this year, we need to mix or kick-off-the-school-year prank with our Halloween prank, so it needs to be _extra _special and _extra_ big, ya know what I'm saying?" Prongs asked, his eyes alit with a mischievous glow.

"Yeah…" I said.

"So, Foxy, our brilliant mastermind, we need you to think of a plan. A _big _plan," Prongs said simply.

"Guys, d'you think that's such a good idea? I mean, pranks _are _the reason I'm in Slytherin after all…"

"No. Pranks were _not _the cause of this," Moony snapped. "I know it. I mean, sure, they piss a lot of people off and embarrass others out of their wits and get us into a lot of trouble, but that's hardly what I'd call truly _evil_."

"I guess you're right…"

"And besides! You can't give up your calling! It's in your blood, heart, mind, and soul!" Padfoot said dramatically with a fist in the air.

"So we're mates again, guys?" I asked them all, making sure.

"We never weren't," Prongs said, and Padfoot and Moony voiced their agreements.

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath. "Let me think."

"When are you going to be out of the Hospital Wing?" Padfoot asked, looking around.

"Tomorrow," I said absentmindedly as the gears started turning swiftly in my head.

"Awesome. So you'll be there just in time to help us make touch-ups and to enjoy the show," Prongs said.

"What are they doing for Halloween this year?" I asked.

"To celebrate the re-opening as well as Halloween, it's special this year," Moony said. "They're putting together a festival. It's going to be _huge_. They've already got most things up, and it takes up the whole school grounds, save for inside the castle and the Forbidden Forest. They've even managed to throw a maze together, and it's big."

I suddenly came up with the most brilliant idea. I snapped my fingers and sat up quickly. "I've got it, guys. So listen carefully." They all nodded and leaned forward, so I lowered my voice and began, "So here's what we're going to do…"

* * *

><p>"Alright, m'boy, you're ready to go," Don said as he finished bandaging my wrist. "Take it easy for a few more days, then the bandages can come off."<p>

"Thanks," I said, smiling. "Happy Halloween."

"You too. Enjoy the festival and try not to cause too much trouble," he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Always," I said as I left the Hospital Wing. I sighed happily as I began to walk; it was nice to be up on my own two feet again. I walked outside into the bright, afternoon sunlight as I made my way to meet Lily and Tonks by the Forbidden Forest. There they were going to give me my costume that they'd made for me and get me all "dressed up", which meant I would get to be a mannequin dummy and then have to watch them "finish" themselves since I couldn't be of any assistance anywhere else because of my injuries. Oh joy.

But I was mainly worried about what I'd be going as this year, or how they'd make me look. For the past two years, we Marauders had dressed up in a theme, and it had always turned out pretty cool because we weren't exactly the same, but it was all related somehow. But this year not only had we had a late start, I hadn't taken part in the planning, so I had no idea if we were doing that this year, or if they were and I had to miss out because Lily and Tonks had taken the job. And Lily and Tonks were as devious as we Marauders, mind you, so I had every right to be scared out of my mind. It wasn't like I could refuse to wear whatever they made for me either because A) Lily and Tonks would kill me and, B) to gain admittance to the festival, you had to be in a costume.

Thinking of the festival, it had me wondering how the prank was coming along. The festival started in five hours and I had no idea what kind of progress they'd made. But the professors and selected students who'd been working hard on setting the festival up had done a great job already.

Everything was Halloween colored, meaning dark purples and oranges and blacks as well as midnight blues. There were pumpkins carved in many freaky images or slogans that were everywhere you turned, some were even floating in the air amongst scattered long, black candles. I couldn't wait until it got dark and everything was lit up; _that _was going to be an awesome sight.

Various booths were set up with activities and some that would eventually have food and other things they had yet to bring out and set up. Farther away I saw the huge, looming green figure of the maze, which I knew without a doubt would have spells and creepy monsters and whatnot scattered throughout inside, waiting for the unsuspecting people to turn the corner and start screaming.

The Quidditch field was set up and decorated too; I'd been told there'd be a short game of Quidditch that would be played with different sized pumpkins that talked, screamed, exploded, put themselves back together again, and started the whole process over again in use instead of the balls. I was slightly jealous that I had to miss out on the opportunity to play, but I'd specifically been told by Fawkes "There's no way since you'd have just gotten out of the hospital a few hours prior. She was a party-pooper. Later on, after the Quidditch game was over and night had set, there'd be singing and dancing and (most likely) a whole lot of drinking, snogging, and out-of-hand partying. To say the least, I couldn't wait.

"Oi! Over here!" Tonks yelled. Glancing up, I saw her waving madly on the outskirts of the trees. Lily was behind her, cast in shadows. Waving back, I picked up my pace, taking care not to overwork my leg and ankle.

"Haha look who's a cripple!" Lily said, grinning as I came to a stop.

"Oh shut-up," I snapped good-naturedly. "No need to state the obvious, Lil."

"Bet it's just _killing _you not being able to play in that special Quidditch game," Tonks said, smirking.

"And you're making me feel _so _much better, Nymph—"

She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt so quickly I hadn't seen it coming and hissed, "Don't _EVER_ call me Nymphadora, or your neck will be _mine_."

I gulped and managed to nod, not doubting she'd stay true to her threat.

She released her grip, smoothed the crease on my shirt, and said, "Good. Now that that's settled, you ready for the surprise?"

"Oh no… I know that look…" I started to say upon seeing the crafty looks on both their faces.

"Oh don't worry, we _all _are using the same theme," Lily said, grinning devilishly.

"Great. So break it to me easy."

"Cross-dressing!" Lily and Tonks said at the same time in sing-song voices.

"_WHAT?"_ They giggled, and I'm sure my facial expression and my tone conveyed the message. _'Ah HELL no!' _

"Heehee I can't _wait_ to let your feminine side show, my dear!" Lily said in an overly cheerful tone.

"One thing that's wrong with that picture though," I managed to get past my frozen lips. "I in no way _at all _have anything close to a female's body. I assure you, and I can prove it, although I'd rather not because Prongs and Moony would kill me."

"Ah don't worry Helios!" Tonks said. "_That's _why Lily started a Polyjuice potion a month ago; just for you, the other boys, and us." Seeing my expression, she glared and said, "Oh quit it! You're acting like a freakin' girl! If you don't knock it off and man up some, I suspect we won't need Polyjuice potion for your girliness to shine through!"

I ground my teeth in irritation, but smirked at how good that comeback was. No, I didn't want them to earn a victory, but I sure as hell didn't want to be called a little girl for the rest of my existence just because I wouldn't dress up in a Halloween costume.

"Fine," I sighed. "Let's go."

"YAY!" they squealed, getting on either side of me and linking arms, leading us toward the Whomping Willow.

"Oh you're going to look _beautiful,_ Helios!" Lily said amiably.

"Thanks Lil. That comforts me a whole lot," I said sarcastically.

"Hey! You'll turn heads, boy! We can assure you of that!" Tonks said, leading us within range of the suspiciously still branches of the Whomping Willow.

"Wh—"

"The boys already took care of the tree for us when we told them we needed a private spot to get everyone ready," Tonks explained.

"Oh. So…they're already there?" I asked hopefully.

"Nope," Lily said.

"Are they already…you know, _changed?"_

"Nope," Tonks mimicked Lily.

"Then—"

"We'll help them when they arrive after we've all changed. They're finishing up the last pieces to your guys' mysterious gigantic prank," Lily said.

As we descended down through the little hole towards the bottom of the tree, I noticed that they had already gotten a whole bunch of supplies down here. There was candles to provide light, make-up, girls' and boys' clothes and shoes, accessories, perfume and cologne, and various other girly things that scared me but I otherwise had no idea what they did or were called _or _what they did.

"Let's just make this easier for all of us and you go ahead and drink this," Lily said, pouring a glass of a disgusting brownish lumpy liquid. If possible, the horrid stench was worse than the sight of the thing. Lily slipped something in it and hand the concoction to me.

"Bottoms up," she said, grinning slightly with her nose turned up at the smell.

"Be a man, Helios, even though in 3.5 seconds you'll be a woman!" Tonks said, cackling at her own joke.

"Oh ha-ha, you're _so _terribly funny," I said dryly. But nevertheless, I plugged my nose, threw my head back, and poured the stuff down my throat. I made a pained expression and muttered my disapproval, but I fell silent when I felt myself changing.

This wasn't the kind of changing I was used to; it seemed a bit more…painful, I wanted to say? The feeling was difficult to describe, only that it was totally different from the Animagus changing.

A few moments later I felt my skin stop crawling, so I turned to Lily and Tonks and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Wow," Lily said. "You look _just _like her!"

"Who?" I asked, but I jumped at the sound of my voice. It was right; it was soft-spoken and _such _a higher pitch then my deep one…

"Oh, no one. Just one of my muggle friends," she said airily.

"Bet'cha want to see what you look like, huh?" Tonks asked. I nodded my head, fearing the worst, and gulped. "HA! Well that's just TOO BAD! You've gotta get all dolled up first!"

I groaned when Tonks tossed me a short skirt and a low-cut t-shirt. Then, laughing, she tossed me a bra and underwear.

I'm sure my face was priceless.

Lily nodded her head towards an area hidden by a curtain. "Go get dressed. If you need help, yell." Glaring at them, I stomped off towards the curtains, swept inside, and flung them shut.

_How do girls wear this stuff? _I asked myself as I put the clothes on. _It's so…tight and uncomfortable._

"Hey!" Tonks said when I left the shelter of the curtain. "You're a natural at this girl stuff!"

"Oh shut-up," I snapped. "It'll be just as bad for you." They giggled, then Tonks pulled a straight face and asked,

"Did you look?"

"Huh?" I asked, confused.

"Did you look at—"

"Oh! No!" I said, understanding. "Well, I mean, I saw briefly, but I didn't gawk or touch or anything… I don't even know this girl, so I'm sure as hell not going to mess with her body." I rolled my eyes. "Give me some credit, guys."

She and Lily burst out laughing. "See, that's why we love you; you're such a gentleman!"

"Yeah, well, Padfoot says there's something wrong with my freakin' head. I just want to treat the other species, I mean, gender, right." They both looked at me, then rolled their eyes in unison.

"Well all of us of the other _species_ thank you for that," Lily said, making me sit down so they could do my hair and make-up. About fifteen minutes later, they both took a step back, grinning at me.

"You look beautiful, Helios!" Lily said, squealing.

"Absolutely stunning," Tonks agreed, clasping her hands together. Just then Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs walked in and froze.

"Whoa!" Padfoot exclaimed. "Who's the new hot chick that you two adopted?" Lily and Tonks exchanged looks, then went into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

"What?" Padfoot asked, looking at the other two.

Remus shook his head. "That 'hot chick', mate, is Helios."

"Oh _shit_," Padfoot muttered. Then he grinned. "You sure make one foxy lady, man!" and he laughed at his own joke.

"Don'tcha know it," I said, winking at them.

"Drink up," Lily said as she handed the others their potion.

"Dude! You're voice—"

"Drink!" Lily ordered Prongs, cutting him off. Seconds later a tall blonde haired girl with blue eyes (Moony), an average height brunette with bright green eyes (Prongs), and a tall black haired girl with brown eyes (Padfoot) stood before us. Lily and Tonks gave them clothes and ordered them to go get dressed.

Two minutes later, Moony and Prongs appeared. Five minutes later, Padfoot finally emerged.

"Damn. You would think I'd remember a girl like this," he said, gesturing at himself. "Who _is _she?"

Lily shook her head in disgust. "One of my muggle friends. I'll let you know you appreciate her."

He flashed a wolfish grin. "Tell her I'm open." He looked down at himself again. "She's fit. Not a twig like the girls we have here. I wanna—"

"Okay," Lily snapped. "That's enough of that. And if you _must _know, she plays softball, so that would explain her looks," she said in a tone that clearly said they were done with this subject. I thought all of them were fairly good-looking, which made me want to actually meet these friends of Lily's.

Finally, thirty minutes later, all four of us were standing in front of huge mirrors, staring, aghast.

I had dark, chocolate brown hair that fell in waves past my shoulders. Deep, honey colored eyes were set in a dark skinned face. Tall and curvy, whoever's body I was in was someone that would take your breath away when you lay eyes on her.

"So…what do you think?" Tonks asked. Then, thinking better of it, she cut all of us off and said, "Never mind. Don't answer that; keep your perverted thoughts to yourselves."

"Alrighty," Lily said, "we're gonna go turn into boys and we'll leave in ten minutes." While the girls were changing, I turned to the others and asked,

"All set?" They all grinned.

"_Ooohhh _yeah," Prongs said.

"Do you know when to set it off?" I checked with Moony.

"Yup. Soon as the sun is 'bout to set," he said.

"And you better run like a bat outta hell!" Padfoot cackled. "Because when that sucker explodes, there's gonna be one hell of a light-show!"

I frowned. "Then we gotta be sure no pedestrians are there to be hurt."

"Already covered," Moony said. "Twenty seconds before it's set to go off, a ward will pop up, forcing any- and everybody back to a safe distance."

"Good," I said, nodding in approval.

"Ta-da!"wo deep, mean-sounding voices said, and when we turned around, there stood two huge, buff, black guys who looked as if they could crush your skulls single-handedly.

"L-lily?" Prongs stuttered. "T-Tonks? I-is th-that _you_?"

One of the men laughed, a deep sound that sounded like a rock-slide. "Sure is," he rumbled. "I'm Lily, and he's Tonks," Lily said, pointing to the one slightly taller than she, with black instead of brown eyes.

"_Lily_?" Prongs squeaked, nearly passing out.

"Heehee," the man said in the most girlish voice he could muster (which wasn't much, mind you).

"Oh good god, you couldn't have picked a more–more—"

"Bizarre?" I supplied for Padfoot.

"Yes! Exactly! You couldn't have chosen a more _bizarre…_" he trailed off, gesturing at Lily and Tonks.

Tonks rolled her eyes. "Yeah, so let's get moving; the festival's about to start."

We all shuffled (us guys moving slowly, trying to get used to the high-heel shoes the girls had given us) out of the tree and made our way to the entrance of the festival.

The professor at the entrance, Professor Longbottom, gave our group a quizzical look. "Hello…" she said slowly. "Who have we here?"

"Just a couple of random kids in a couple of random bodies," I said, still unsure of my very feminine voice/figure.

"Mhmm…well have fun, Marauders. You too, Lily and Tonks," she said, smiling. "You all look smashing."

"That woman's a genius, figuring it out that quick," Padfoot said.

"Well, her great-great-great-great-grandmother was Luna Lovegood, so…" Lily explained, glancing around at everything, trying to take it in all at once.

"C'mon boys!" Prongs said, walking towards the _huge _jack-o-lantern in the center of the whole set-up. "We need to go make a couple of final adjustments."

"Okay," Tonks said, "we'll meet you at the Quidditch field."

"Sounds good," Prongs said, smiling sweetly at Lily, who rolled her eyes. Jeesh. Even when she was a man he still loved his Lily-flower.

"Alright, so what's left to do?" I asked when we came up to the ignoramus pumpkin.

"Eh, nothing really except for checking the wards," Moony said. With his help, we all managed to get inside the wards.

"So we have two sets of wards? This one now and another when time gets close?" I asked.

"Yuppers," Prongs replied, looking up in awe.

"I'll get this side, and Helios, you check the side by the trees," Moony said.

"Sure." I headed towards the forest, focusing. And, sure enough, there was the specific shimmering in the air that indicated a ward. I was about to go back to the others when movement caught my eye. Turning, expecting to see an animal, I was prepared for what met my eyes.

I was blown away. Knocked speechless. Startled by the pure and innocent beauty. All I could do was stare. Flawless; that was what she appeared to be.

Tall and graceful with glowing, bronze skin, dark, ebony colored hair, and the brightest blue eyes I'd ever seen. She was an unearthly being.

Her eyes met mine and a shiver went down my spine. She held my eyes for a second, then looked down at something around her neck and started talking to it in a foreign language, walking away.

Damn. Why were all the hot ones crazy?

"Hey! Report in, Helios!" I heard Padfoot yell. Intrigued despite my best efforts not to be, I turned to follow her, yelling,

"All clear! Hold on just a sec, though, before you take off." Not waiting for a reply, I started forward and—

_BOOM!_

I was flung through the air with something firey-hot at my back. Everything was a blur, but I thought the sky had lit up in multiple colors, and there was this crackling noise.

All of this and more happened less than a couple seconds.

I was thrown into the wards, only to slide down and land on the ground. _Hard_. On my head. Not surprisingly, I blacked out as the explosion continued.

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><p><strong>AN: So, no reviews, but because this may be the last time you'll hear from me in awhile because my computer hates me, I thought I'd be nice. But seriously; if you read, you review. It's really that simple, guys! And it's only fair to us.**

**Yes, this story _is _starting to take shape, so you might start to like it even more! YAY! Wouldn't that be AWESOME? And, yeah, I know, real mature to have "BOOM!" as my chapter title. In fact, Seshat laughed and called me an idiot, too! Well, we'll just have to learn that I'm NOT mature, because if I was, what fun would that be?**

**So, R&R people! Just let us know anything! Really! It'd be great!**

**Seshat**

**P.S. And yes, Nisaba, LOTS and LOTS of type-o's...yer slackin'!**


	8. Chapter 7: Nyx

Chapter 7

_Nyx_

_**A Fair Prank**  
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**I**t was loud. I had been sleeping peacefully when people's voices interrupted my sleep.

"You know what, get out of here Regulus." Shouted a voice vaguely familiar.

"No way in hell, she's _my_ girlfriend." Shouted a voice right back, but this one was closer to me. The arguing continued, I was coming into focus, it was Regulus and Black arguing. But wait, why is Regulus and Black in my dorm? I thought. "Oh shut up already!" Shouted another voice. This one was familiar too, oh of course, it was Lupin. "I agree, get out if you're going to fight." And Helios too. I opened my eyes slowly and glared up at Regulus. He glanced down at me and bent over, smiling.

"Morning sunshine." He said.

"Dont try that crap with me," I snarled, my head aching. Laughter followed and I sat up slowly wincing at the pain. I realized that I was wearing a bandage around my head like a headband, my left arm was in a cast, my whole body ached, and my right ankle was swollen and propped up on a pillow. A boy who looked like Regulus was standing at the far end of the room next to the bed with a blonde tired looking boy in it it and a boy that looked a lot like me was standing there as well. "Where am I?" I asked slowly and looked around.

"Hospital wing," said a deep voice. I turned to see Don, the school nurse, standing there.

"Why?" I asked. As Don handed me a glass of water.

"Pumpkin explosion." The one who looked like Regulus said, I spit out the water I had just taken a sip of and started to laugh. _His name is Black, thats right. Wait, why do I know that?_

"What?" I asked. "Why did a pumpkin explode? And why was I there?"

"You really dont remember?" Regulus asked. I looked at him and tilted my head like a dog in confusion.

"What happened?" I asked. Regulus shot Black and the other two a glance.

"You messing with us?" Black asked, he was walking over to me and stood next to my bed with his arms crossed. "You actually save me then have the audacity to forget about it."

"You actually know the word audacity, I thought it was too large for your tiny brain to remember." I said, wait, why was I being so mean to this boy. Sure I knew his name, but who was he. "Im sorry," I said and hung my head in shame.

"Nyx," Regulus said and put a hand on me. I flinched away. "Who is Nyx?" I asked, "Oh wait, that's me isn't it." _Why don't I know my own name?_

"You don't remember anything?" Regulus asked. I shook my head. "What is you're best memory right now." I pondered this question before answering.

"The kiss," Black and the other two gasped quietly.

"Which one?" Regulus asked.

"The one in the Room," Regulus nodded.

"That was our first kiss." He explained. I reached out and grabbed his shirt with my good hand, seeing as the other was in a cast. I pulled him to me and kissed him gently on the list. "There, our second." I smiled but he shook his head. "Our third?" He shrugged. Black glared at Regulus and me and I looked at him slowly and released Regulus' shirt.

"You're Sirius Black," I glared at him.

"Nice way to state the obvious," He snapped back.

"Remus Lupin, and . . . and Helios Riddle." I pointed them out then turned to Regulus to smile like a child. "Right?" I asked. Regulus nodded. I turned to Black. "So are you as much of an idiot as Regulus describes?"

"Oh, now she looses her memory and gets to re-hate me all over again." Black sighs. "At least I get to use all my old pranks and you won't remember."

"What I want to know is how I ended up in this bed with a hurt head, broken arm, and swollen ankle." I snapped at him. Black sighed and pulled up a chair.

"Sirius go away." Regulus said.

"No, you don't know the story so I'm going to tell it." He said. Regulus glared but allowed it. _I guess he didn't know what happened._ He sat on the edge of my bed and I looked at Black, waiting.

"Well I dont know how you heard about it, but I saw you walking up to the pumpkin we had set fireworks in and cast a spell. You left quickly then turned back and walked closer. I was heading towards you to see what you were doing," Black started but I interrupted.

"You were wearing a dress." I laughed. "I remember now, thanks Black." I thought about it for a second. "I set the time wrong on the explosion, I was heading to change it when you appeared out of nowhere. I didn't have anytime to react so I knocked you to the ground just before the pumpkin . . . exploded."

"You saved him," Regulus said incredulously.

I nodded and Black did as well. I looked over at Lupin and Riddle. "Are you two hurt?" I asked, not sympathetically just curious.

"Broke my leg," Lupin said, "I was hit by the stem of the pumpkin and covered in its guts." I looked at Riddle.

"I was hit in the back of the head." He wasn't hurt so bad so he couldn't be stuck in the hospital wing. I looked back at Lupin. "Guess we're roomies." I sighed.

"Nyx," Regulus said. "Are you sorry for them?"

"No," I said simply and closed my eyes to ease the headache. "I'm just thinking about how the explosion backfired. Literally." I opened my eyes and glared at Regulus, Black, and Riddle. "Get out,"

"Nyx," Regulus whined. I held up a hand.

"Regulus I have a migraine and if you don't want you're balls cursed off _get out_." I glared at Black and Riddle too. "Same for you two."

"Miss Riddle, please do not threaten them in this room." Don said.

"Fine, Regulus go out in the halls and yell in here that I'm going to curse off their balls if they dont leave." I said. Regulus laughed nervously, knowing that I wasn't kidding. He left, followed by Black and Riddle.

"You didn't have to threaten them, just ask them nicely and they would have left." Lupin said as the door shut behind them.

"Ah, shut up Lupin," I groaned and leaned back on my pillow falling into a deep sleep where I dreamed of the night before.

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><p>I was walking down the stairs with Regulus next to me as we arrived at the Fair. It was nice with tents everywhere, a pumpkin patch, a corn maze and other muggle games they had decided to do add into the mix. I rolled my eyes and left Regulus' side as Piper started to walk up to him.<p>

"Miss Riddle," said Professor Ivory's voice. "You're supposed to be in costume."

I turned to look at her. "I'm scary enough," Ivory actually approved of it and let me through. I saw the area with the pumpkins and looked around quickly. the Mauraders were standing near the largest pumpkin and waving their wands. I walked towards the pumpkin as the Maurader's disappeared into the crowd. I walked over to it and waved my wand, using a counter-spell on their spell and causing the time to be set a few minutes earlier.

I glanced at my watch, they had set theirs to go off at 7:30 and right now it was 7:10, I set mine to go off at 7:12. I walked away quickly, then turned back to the pumpkin._ Shit. _I thought and realized my clock was wrong, it was a minute early. I walked back to the pumpkin and started to make the time different.

"What are you doing?" Black's voice interrupted her spell.

"Black, dammit, you stopped the spell." I snarled at him, then I realized something, the pumpkin was about to explode. "Watch it." I shouted as the time on my watch was counting down the seconds. I jumped at Black, knocking him to the ground as the pumpkin exploded. There was a sharp pain in my arm and in my ankle. My head hit Blacks and I blacked out.

* * *

><p>"Riddle," Lupin shouted. I started and woke up. "You were talking in your sleep." I laid back down on the pillow and sighed.<p>

"What did I say?"

"Something about Black and dammit." Lupin laughed slightly. I looked over at him confused.

"You know something odd Lupin," I said. He looked back over at me. "You're nicer than the rest of them."

"Well the rest of them just hate you cause," he trailed off.

"Im a snobbish bitch with an attitude. And I used to be a Slytherin." I said the last word with contempt.

"No," Lupin said slowly. "I think it's because you hate them."

"I don't hate them, per se, I just don't get along with them." I said as suddenly the door burst open. Regulus and Black barged in, arguing and glaring at each other.

"Why do I have to leave? I was here first?" Regulus shouted.

"Well I was born first." Black argued. I shared a quick glance with Lupin and we both cracked smiles.

"Shut up you two," we shouted together. Black and Regulus looked shocked, glared at each other, then Regulus walked towards me and Black towards Lupin.

It wasnt long before Regulus and Black were forced to leave. Lupin and me actually got along better than before. It was strange being able to talk to Lupin as, not quite a friend, but an acquaintance.

"You know what Riddle," Lupin had said one day.

"Hm?" I asked.

"You're not as bad as everyone thinks." Lupin said. I started to laugh, that reminded me of what Black said as well.

"Just wait, Lupin, just wait." And then we cracked up.

**A/N: Okay so this chapter was really hard for me to write cause I had no idea what to write. I just kind of ended it but I will make up for it in the next chapter, my next one not Seshat. Also I wrote most of this at 2:00 so there are spelling and grammatical errors like in all my other works. **

**Xo, Nisaba.  
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